The Chinese capital Beijing is honoring one of the greatest draftsmen and portraitists in art history, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

Best known for creating La Grande Odalisque, the artist's creative anatomical distortions have fascinated the world. A new exhibition on the master at the Millennium Monument Museum in Beijing is the first of its kind in China.

From oil paintings to sketch and print, 70 artworks from Ingres Museum in the painter's hometown Montauban in southern France, reveal the freshness and originality Ingres brought to classical art. 

"We're extremely proud to show our collection in China. The Ingres Museum in Montauban is currently undergoing a major renovation, so we’ve initiated a project called 'Museum Beyond the Walls', which allows our rich Ingres collection to be shown in galleries and museums around the world," said Brigitte Bareges, mayor of Montauban.

"Throughout Ingres's work, you can find traces of Orientalism, as he was fascinated by the eastern world and its culture," said Florence Viguier, director of the Ingres Museum.

He said he recently learned that when Chinese painter Xu Beihong was studying in Paris, his teacher was a student of Ingres. "And Xu has also done some prints of Ingres paintings. In a sense, there’s this interesting connection."

Ingres' work, seemingly rooted in Academic painting, helped influence the artistic revolutions of the late 19th and early 20th century. 

His paintings helped inspire the genius of Picasso, and deliberate anatomical distortions in art.

"We have the original 'Ruggiero rescuing Angelica' placed alongside a replica of the Grand Odalisque, the original is kept in the Louvre. A technique unique to Ingres was his anatomical distortions, seen most particularly in his female nudes. He is truly a key forerunner of the language of the avant-garde movements and abstraction, influencing painters like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. In fact, Picasso admired Ingres and referred to him throughout his career," said Director Viguier.

"Ingres was a trained Neo-Classicist painter, but he was also modern. And I think Chinese artists are also at a crosspoint between inheriting the classics while embracing modernity. I believe his work and he as an artist (who) will serve as a great inspiration for China's artistic community," said Ji Pengcheng, executive director of the Millennium Monument Museum.

The exhibition will be open to the public at the Millennium Monument Museum in Beijing until January 16.