Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. The son of an artist, he began his studies at the Academy of Toulouse and eventually became a student of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). Live David, Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style. Although he considered himself a history painter, it is his portraits, both painted and drawn, that are recognized as his greatest legacy. His expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Picasso, Matisse and other modernists.