 Louis @-@ François Bertin was 66 in 1832 , the year of the portrait . He befriended Ingres either through his son <unk> Bertin , a student of the painter , or via Étienne @-@ Jean <unk> , Ingres ' friend and the Journal 's art critic . In either case the genesis of the commission is unknown . Bertin was a leader of the French upper class and a supporter of Louis Philippe and the Bourbon Restoration . He was a director of the Le Moniteur <unk> until 1823 , when the Journal des débats became the recognised voice of the liberal @-@ constitutional opposition after he had come to criticize absolutism . He eventually gave his support to the July Monarchy . The Journal supported contemporary art , and Bertin was a patron , collector and <unk> of writers , painters and other artists . Ingres was sufficiently intrigued by Bertin 's personality to accept the commission . 
