The Source

The Source (French: La Source, meaning "The Water Source or The Spring") is an oil painting on canvas by French neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. The work was begun in Florence around 1820 and not completed until 1856, in Paris. When Ingres completed The Source, he was seventy-six years old, already famous, and president of the École des Beaux-Arts. The pose of the nude may be compared with that of another by Ingres, the Venus Anadyomene (1848), and is a reimagination of the Aphrodite of Cnidus or Venus Pudica. Two of Ingres' students, painters Paul Balze and Alexandre Desgoffe, helped to create the background and water jar.

Subject
narcissus, mons pubis, river source, chestnut hair, pubic hair removal, areola, clay pot, gaze towards the viewer, specular reflection, contrapposto, waist, pitcher, part, spring, waist-length hair, navel, nudity, female breast, Hedera helix, flower, armpit, water, woman