Oedipus and the Sphinx

Oedipus and the Sphinx from 1826 at the National Gallery is a later version of the subject Ingres first exhibited at the 1808 Salon. The confrontation between human intelligence and monstrous enigma made it a signature work, with the heroic male nude demonstrating Ingres's mastery of classical form. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, David's greatest pupil and the defender of the classical French tradition against the Romantic movement, dominated French painting through the middle decades of the nineteenth century from his position at the head of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and the École des Beaux-Arts. His doctrine of the primacy of line over color — inherited from David but pursued with a fanatical intensity David himself had not required — defined the terms of the great debate between Classicism (Ingres) and Romanticism (Delacroix) that structured French cultural life from the 1820s to the 1860s. His influence on subsequent French painting — including Degas, Renoir, and ultimately Picasso — was foundational.

The composition presents the nude Oedipus confronting the Sphinx in a rocky setting. Ingres's precise anatomical rendering and smooth surface create a definitive Neo-classical treatment of the mythological encounter.