About this artwork
The legendary Celtic bard Ossian leans on his harp, dreaming of past battles. His son Oscar, raising his sword and shield, stands before a group of ghostly warriors led by Ossian’s father, Fingal. The poems of Ossian by James MacPherson (1736–1796), were greatly admired by the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821). In 1811, Napoleon commissioned Ingres to paint this scene on the ceiling of his bedroom in the Palazzo di Monte Cavallo on the Quirinal in Rome.
Updated February 2024
-
artist:Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780 - 1867) French
-
title:The Dream of Ossian
-
date created:Dated 1811
-
materials:Pencil, black and white chalk on green-blue washed paper
-
measurements:26.00 x 20.50 cm
-
object type:
-
credit line:Purchased 1994
-
accession number:D 5369
-
gallery:
-
subject:
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Ingres was a pupil of the neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David. In 1801 he won the Prix de Rome, and remained in Italy for eighteen years. Ingres adored everything that Italy had to offer, from the masterpieces of the Renaissance to the numerous examples of antique art. In Rome, he studied at...
