| Description |  |
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a particularly talented draughtsman who epitomized the classical, refined style, then in official favor. His portraits involved his subjects in countless sitting. The paintings of Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, by contrast, exhibit a freedom of brushwork and a use of color that was innovative at the time.
The increasing importance of landscape painting was recognized in 1817 when a Prix de Rome (Rome Prize) for historical landscape was established. By mid-century, the artists working near Barbizon in the Fontainebleau forest regarded landscape painting as the transcription of nature, and the distinction between sketches and finished studio works was blurred. |