contemporary interest it possessed lay largely in
the martial spirit then prevalent. Of course it was upheld by the
Institute, and it really set the pace for French painting for nearly
half a century. When David was called upon to paint Napoleonic
pictures he painted them under protest, and yet these, with his
portraits, constitute his best work. In portraiture he was uncommonly
strong at times.

[Illustration: FIG. 61.--INGRES. OEDIPUS AND SPHINX. LOUVRE.]

After the Restoration David, who had been a revolutionist, and then an
adherent of Napoleon, was sent into exile; but the influence he had
left and the school he had established were carried on by his
contemporaries and pupils. Of the former Regnault (1754-1829), Vincent
(1746-1816), and Prudhon (1758-1823) were the most conspicuous. The
last one was considered as out of the classic circle, but so far as
making his art depend upon drawing and composition, he was a genuine
classicist. His subjects, instead of being heroic, inclined to the
mythological and the allegorical. In Italy he had been a student of
the Renaissance painters, and from them borrowed a method of shadow
gradation that rendered his figures misty and phantom-like. They
possessed an ease of movement sometimes called "Prudhonesque grace,"
and in composition were well placed and effective.

Of David's pupils there were many. Only a few of them, however, had
pronounced ability, and even these carried David's methods into the
theatrical. Girodet (1766-1824) was a draughtsman of considerable
power, but with poor taste in color and little repose in composition.
Most of his work was exaggeration and strained effect. Lethiere
(1760-1832) and Guerin (1774-1833), pupils of Regnault, were painters
akin to Girodet, but inferior to him. Gerard (1770-1837) was a weak
David follower, who gained some celebrity by painting portraits of
celebrated men and women. The two pupils of David who brought him the
most credit were Ingres (1780-1867) and Gros (1771-1835). Ingres was a
cold, persevering man, whose principles had been well settled by David
early in life, and were adhered to with conviction by the pupil to the
last. He modified the classic subject somewhat, studied Raphael and
the Italians, and reintroduced the single figure into art (the Source,
and the Odalisque, for example). For color he had no fancy. "In nature
all is form," he used to say. Painting he thought not an independent
art, but "a development of