644km (400 miles) SW of Paris; 72km (45 miles) NW of Albi; 50km (31 miles) N of Toulouse
This pink-brick capital of the Tarn-et-Garonne département is the city of the painter Ingres and the sculptor Bourdelle. Montauban, on the right bank of the Tarn, dominated by the fortified Eglise St-Jacques, is one of the most ancient of southwest France's towns. The most scenic view of Montauban is at the 14th-century brick bridge, Pont Vieux, which connects the town to its satellite of Villebourbon.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, an admirer of Raphael and a student of David, was born in 1780 in Montauban. His father, an ornamental sculptor and painter, recognized his son's artistic abilities early and encouraged him. He was noted for his nudes and historical paintings, now considered fine examples of neoclassicism. One of his first exhibitions of portraits in 1806 met with ridicule, but later generations have been more appreciative. With the exception of one work displayed in the town's cathedral, Montauban's work by Ingres is in the Musée Ingres.
