Portrait of Baronne James de Rothschild
 

Hello, this is a portrait of Baronne James de Rothschild, Ingres painting. Oil on 14" x 18" canvas. Would you mind giving me some comments?

Wow! I am very impressed! I really like it, and especially appreciate that you have done it in your own style! I like your chosing to keep the dress the same color rather than all the colors in the original because of how it works with the background blue and your style. You seem to have made this piece your own, and I really like that.

The only thing that stands out a little, to me, is the lack of transition on the viewer's left
cheek. Great piece! Looks like you had fun!

Here's the original
 

Carolyn, thank you for your comments.

The backgound colour of the original seems like her dress; I changed it to blue so that it can stand out more in the portrait.

Here's the detail of head
 

The detail of head.

Hello,

When you make a painting like this you may want to consider what you want to learn from this. It is anyway very useful to make copies after someone like Ingres. You have changed the background colour to blue. The problem is that the spatial illusion becomes a problem in this. You have used a very bright blue. In the original painting the background seems to move to behind, in your painting the blue is so bright that in the colours the spatial illusion becomes confusing. It makes the painting more flat that way. You have changed the blue of the dress into red. It would have been a challenge technically to copy it just like it was in the original. You seem to have a problem with the drawing itself. For example, the right eyebrow is in the copy lower than the left eyebrow, while in the original the right eyebrow is higher.

When you make copies I would advice to make a copy that is as much as possible close to the original, that forces you to go after the specific way of painting of an old master like Ingres. Maybe not complete paintings but maybe just hands, or eyes, or other details. Maybe there are unfinished paintings by Ingres which reveal how his method of working was.

Do you want to know specifically how Ingres worked and achieve the same kind of effect or do you consider what you do now as your own style which you temporarily adjust to the painter you copy? I think that's an important question. Especially when people try to respond to your postings.

Peter

Thank you
 

Peter, thank you for your suggestions. I also think that the background is flat, if I add more shadows in the background, it can solve the problem. I agree with you, the copy should be close to the original so that you can learn the most from this painting. Do you know the drawing skill from Ingres? I study his history, but I don't know what is the main skill from Ingres? So, I only observe his painting from what I see.

Hello,

Ingres was a master draftsman and his paintings are very, very linear. You seem to work on white canvases. Ingres used coloured canvases to work on. It's not only the use of shadows that makes a background convincing. The blue that you use is very strong. When you weaken a color it will tend to move to behind in its appearance. When an object comes to the front it will have stronger colours in its appearance. So, to make a background appear like it's in the right place the old masters used weak colours, very brownish or gray.

If you want to study Ingres, maybe you can copy details of his drawings to get the right feel.

Which oil-colours do you use ? The choice of pigments is very important to have a balanced approach in the colouring.

Thanks
 

Peter, thank you for all of your opinions. I will more carefully for my next painting.

This is the detail of fabric
 

This is the detail of fabric.

Hello,

Your current approach will not lead to a picture that resembles the tone and color of the original.

I attached some pictures to explain something to you about the working-method of Ingres.

This is a study by Ingres for the painting you copied. When you see this drawing you will notice that it's made on a coloured piece of paper. Dark areas/ shadows are drawn on the brown paper, and the paper itself functions as a mid-tone. The lighter areas are drawn with white chalk (I think). But most important is that this gives an
idea of the relation between the colour of the paper (or the canvas when one would paint) and the way one draws and paints on such a coloured paper or canvas.