Ingres was
a sensitive and painstaking draftsman. For him, drawing was the
very heart of painting, and he drew and redrew whatever he was
to paint until he understood all its elements and their subtlest
interrelations. Though he valued history painting above all else,
he also often produced portraits, some of the best of which are
drawings.
Even in his portraits Ingres exhibited a sensual feeling that
was more often expressed in the nudes that preoccupied him as
he got older and his style developed. His Turkish Women at the
Bath, produced at 82 years of age, is the culmination of his portrayals
of female nudes.
