Charles Gounod

This is a copy I did of Ingres' portrait of Charles Gounod. Charles Gounod was himself a composer and if you google him you can find info about him (something about opera, that's where I stopped.) They were friends. Ingres was a violin player and often played with Gounod. At Ingres' encouragement Gounod began sketching. Sounds like they had a wonderful friendship. The drawing referenced above was done in 1841. In 1859, Gounod brought his wife to Ingres for a companion drawing. You can see my copy of that tomorrow. I'll just remark that it was 18 years later, but you wouldn't know it looking at them. The couple look like they are brother and sister and were clearly drawn in the same manner. I don't know if his style didn't change in 18 years or it was deliberate on his part. But, it is interesting nonetheless.

I was hoping to give you links to the articles that contained some of the facts I mentioned yesterday. But, I can't find them tonight. Instead, here are some other links to his works, with a few biographies thrown in.

Here is a site built from a 1999 exhibition of his work in New York:

• Portraits by Ingres

Here's another site:

• Art Renewal

You can see a bunch of his work here (but it isn't organized all that well):

• Ingres Web Site

(Sorry for the weird formatting on this. The blogger editor is acting up and I'm tired of fighting with it. I'd rather go read my next installment in Anna Karenina!)