 Ingres ' early career coincided with the Romantic movement , which reacted against the prevailing neoclassical style . <unk> in French art had developed as artists saw themselves as part of the cultural center of Europe , and France as the successor to Rome . Romantic painting was <unk> and more expressive , preoccupied more with colour than with line or form , and more focused on style than on subject matter . <unk> based on classical themes fell out of fashion , replaced by contemporary rather than historical subject matter , especially in portraiture . Ingres resisted this trend , and wrote , " The history painter shows the species in general ; while the portrait painter represents only the specific individual — a model often ordinary and full of shortcomings . " From his early career , Ingres ' main source of income was commissioned portraits , a genre he dismissed as lacking in grandeur . The success of his The <unk> of Louis XIII at the 1824 Salon marked an abrupt change in his fortunes : he received a series of commissions for large history paintings , and for the next decade he painted few portraits . His financial difficulties behind him , Ingres could afford to concentrate on historical subjects , although he was highly sought @-@ after as a <unk> . He wrote in 1847 , " <unk> portraits , they are so difficult to do that they prevent me getting on with greater things that I could do more quickly . " 
