David was considered the most influential painter of the Neoclassical movement in France, characterized by a style of austere and ethical painting that reflects the moral climate of the last years of the ancien régime. He became an active revolutionary and worked for the new French Republic. He was then attracted to Napoleon I and developed an Empire style marked by warm Venetian color. Following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1816, David went into exile in Brussels. He had a large number of pupils, and his influence was felt by the majority of French 19th-century painters. His compositional innovations were a break with the existing Rococo fantasy. Comment on works: Portraits: History.

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David, Jacques-Louis

Biography

Notable Works

Artworks

Highlighted Works(4)

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) and Marie Anne Lavoisier (Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze, 1758–1836)

The Death of Socrates

Leonidas at Thermopylae

Madame de Pastoret and Her Son

All Artworks

General Étienne-Maurice Gérard (1773–1852)

Head of a Child

Madame David

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries

Madame François Buron

Seated Gentleman

Heads of a faun and a young woman (Les têtes d'une jeune femme et d'un faune)

The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons

Study for The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons

Study for the Wife and Daughters of Brutus (recto); Study of a Male Nude (verso)

The Death of Socrates

Crito

Hermaphrodite

Paris and Helen

The Death of Socrates

The Death of Camilla

A Young Woman of Frascati

Paris and Helen (Anonymous Tracing after d ’Hancarville)

Flying Figure Holding a Crown, Reclining River God

Scene from Ancient History: Cup Offered to an Invalid