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A young woman stands against a rocky wall, pouring water from a jug on her shoulder, the stream falling into a pool at her feet among flowers. Begun in the 1820s and completed in 1856, when Ingres was seventy-six, The Source is his most famous image of ideal beauty.
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A painting of a lifetime
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres began The Source in Florence in the 1820s, but he left the figure unfinished for decades. In 1856, at the age of seventy-six, he took it up again in Paris, with the help of his pupils, and completed it. The result was hailed as the summary of his lifelong pursuit of ideal beauty.
The painting is an allegory: the young woman represents a spring, a source of water and of life. The theme belonged to a long classical tradition of nymphs and personifications of rivers.
The face
The young woman's face is calm, symmetrical and serene, with large eyes and a slightly parted mouth, the ideal face that Ingres had refined throughout his career, inspired by Raphael and Greek sculpture.
Detail 1
An ideal face
The young woman's face is serene and perfectly balanced, an image of classical beauty inspired by Raphael.
The jug
She holds a jug on her shoulder with both hands, tipping it so that a stream of water pours down beside her. Water flowing from a jug was the traditional attribute of a river or spring deity.
Detail 2The pouring jug
The earthenware jug on her shoulder pours a stream of clear water, the attribute of a spring nymph.
The pose
The figure stands in a gentle S-curve, her weight on one leg, a pose borrowed from ancient sculpture, known as contrapposto. Her body is painted with smooth, almost invisible brushwork and pale, luminous tones against the dark rock, an image of purity rather than sensuality, as Ingres conceived it.
The pool and the flowers
At her feet, the water falls into a clear pool, where her feet are reflected. Flowers, including a daisy and ivy, grow at the water's edge, symbols of innocence and of the renewal of nature.
Detail 3Flowers at the water's edge
At the foot of the rock, flowers and ivy grow beside the pool where the water falls, symbols of innocence and renewal.
Detail 4The rocky niche
The figure stands in a niche of dark rock and ivy, which makes her pale body glow by contrast.
The reception of The Source
When The Source was exhibited in 1856, it was greeted with enthusiasm as a masterpiece of ideal beauty. The writer Théophile Gautier praised its purity and grace, and collectors competed to buy it. It was acquired by Count Charles-Marie Tanneguy Duchâtel, whose widow later gave it to the Louvre. For many nineteenth-century viewers, The Source represented the classical ideal in an age of Romanticism and Realism. Modern viewers may find its perfection cold, but its influence was immense: it was copied, imitated and reproduced countless times, and it inspired later painters, from the academic artists of the Salon to Renoir in his late bathers.
Seeing The Source
The painting measures about 1.63 by 0.80 metres. It entered the French national collections in 1878 and hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
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From $349 — Make it yours.Frequently asked questions
What does The Source represent?
It is an allegory of a spring of water, personified by a young woman pouring water from a jug.
How long did Ingres take to paint The Source?
He began it in Florence in the 1820s and finished it in Paris in 1856, more than thirty years later.
What pose is the figure in?
She stands in contrapposto, a gentle S-curve borrowed from classical sculpture.
Where is The Source?
It is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Sources and further reading
- Musée d'Orsay, collection notes on La Source
- Robert Rosenblum, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1967)
- Gary Tinterow and Philip Conisbee (eds.), Portraits by Ingres (1999)
