The Sincerest Form of Flattery:Picasso and Ingres at the National Gallery.

Just two paintings! That was it. The National Gallery started trailing their Picasso Ingres:Face to Face exhibition some time ago and on first reading of it I imagined a fairly extensive affair telling the story of how Picasso, long acclaimed as the greatest artist of the 20th century, took influence from the French neoclassical painter Jean-August-Dominique Ingres and adapted it for a modern sensibility.

When it became apparent that it was to be a free exhibition I knew then it would likely be smaller. I thought perhaps The National would host it in their Sunley Room (they have some pretty good exhibitions there) but on booking a (free) ticket I was quickly disabused of that notion.

Picasso Ingres:Face to Face was in one small room in the east of the gallery and there were, as I've already mentioned, just TWO paintings in it. They're both very good paintings. Of that there is no doubt. But it's pretty thin gruel even when wadded out with a few explanatory signs and a quote from each artist written directly on the wall.

"Who is there, among the greats, who has not imitated? Nothing is made with nothing..." - Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - Madame Moitessier (1856)

The quote ascribed to Ingres is clearly designed to show that he wouldn't be bothered by Picasso riffing on his style - and that Ingres himself borrowed from past masters. Raphael being the most cited example. His 1856 portrait of Madame Moitessier was made to celebrate the then 23 year old's marriage to the (44 year old) businessman Paul-Sigisbert Moitessier.

Ingres actually began the painting in 1844 (the year of the marriage) but it took him an astonishing twelve years to finish. Initially, the plan was to have Moitessier's young daughter sat on her lap but as time passed said daughter grew too large and was replaced with a fan. Rich people loved their fans back in those days.

Ingres combines contemporary Parisian clothing with classical references and turns the painting into a double portrait by showing Moitessier's reflection in a mirror behind her. When Picasso first encountered the Ingres portrait in Paris in 1921 it was at a time when he was looking to move away from Cubism and experiment with new ideas but it wasn't until over a decade later, 1932, that he created what you may call a cover version of it.

Whereas the Ingres work was a commission - and one he nearly didn't take, Picasso's Woman With A Book (which you'd normally need to travel to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California to see) is a portrait of the randy old goat's lover Marie-Therese Walter.

Picasso met her on the streets of Paris in 1927 (she was 17, he was 46) and was struck by her 'interesting face'. She began modelling for the older man and, inevitably, she became his lover. Even though he was still married to the ballet dancer Olga Khoklova. Olga was 36 so perhaps Picasso considered her to be getting on a bit.

Walter's in a similar pose to Moitessier - note the position of her right hand, there's the double portrait thing going on (although some believe that may be Picasso's profile rather than Walter's), and instead of a fan she has a book on her lap. Elsewhere, Picasso has done his own thing. Patches of jarring colour on Walter's dress contrast with a darker background (believed to reflect the fact they were having an affair at the time) and whereas Moitissier looks directly out to the viewer, Walter is, in true Picasso style, painted both in profile and head on.

 Pablo Picasso - Woman With A Book (1932)

"One's work is a way of keeping a diary", Picasso is reported to have once said and I'm with him on that. My blog is, in ways, my diary. It's not as interesting as Picasso's, few are, but it does at least have more than two pages. An interesting exhibition but one that need not detain you for very long. Something more comprehensive next time please!