Jean Dominique Auguste' Ingres, a French historical painter, born in Montauban, Sept. 15, 1781, died in Paris, Jan. 14, 1867. In the school of David he made such rapid progress that by the age of 20 he had gained in two successive years the first and second prizes of the academy of fine arts. After 1806 he passed nearly 20 years in Italy, abandoning the dry, classic style he had acquired from David. In 1829 he became director of the French academy in Rome. He was made a senator in 1862, and a member of the council of public instruction. His works are numerous, and comprise generally serious historical and classical subjects; in the great exhibition of 1855 at Paris an entire saloon was appropriated to them. His best known pictures are " CEdipus and the Sphinx," " Jupiter and Thetis," "A Woman in the Bath," "Ossian's Sleep," and "The Vow of Louis XIII." Many are in the Louvre, on the ceiling of one of the apartments of which is painted his "Apotheosis of Homer." His " Strato-nice," painted for the duke of Orleans, was sold in 1853 for 40,000 francs.

Among his latest works was the " Apotheosis of Napoleon I.," painted on the ceiling of the hotel de ville in Paris. He painted the portraits of many distinguished personages, including Napoleon I.