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Jacques-Louis David

1748-1825 France/Neo-Classical

 

Brief Biography-Jacques Louis David was from Paris; his father, an ironmonger, died in a duel in 1757, which affected David’s temperament. His mother made him train as an architect, which was his uncle’s profession, but in 1765 he decided he wanted to be a painter. He was closely associated with his distant cousin Francois Boucher who arranged his training under Joseph Marie Vien.
In 1771, when the Academy rejected his paintings for the Prix de Rome for the second time, he tried to commit suicide by starving himself. Nevertheless, he won the prize eventually in 1774. In 1775, he travelled to Rome, where he spent the next five years. The work of several artists he encountered there inspired him, particularly Raphael's paintings. In 1781, he took on pupils in Paris, notably Antoine Jean Gros, whom he mentored, and in 1796, he took on Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
In 1782, he inherited a substantial dowry when he married Charlotte Pecoul and enjoyed success with his paintings. After the French revolution in 1789, he became politically active in favour of the process. In 1792, he joined the National Convention and served on the Committee of General Security, using his paintings as propaganda. In 1793, he arranged for the dissolution of the French Academy and replaced it with the Republican Society of the Arts. He also voted for the death of the king.
His wife, who was a royalist, divorced him in 1794. They arrested David for supporting the revolutionary leader Robespierre whom the people betrayed and went to jail for six months. His wife pleaded for his release, and they got remarried in 1796. He subsequently withdrew from politics and concentrated on his paintings.
In 1799 Napoleon seized power and made David his Premier Pentre. When Napoleon abdicated in 1815, David was again in danger as he had signed a petition stating he would be an enemy of the state when Napoleon was no longer in power. He went into exile in Brussels. Romantics like Gericault and Delacroix now held sway at the salon in Paris, leaving David in the past. In 1824, he was knocked down by a cab in Brussels, and he died the following year due to injuries. David’s burial place is in Brussels.

 

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Death of Marat

Death of Marat

Marq- de Pastoret

Marquise de Pastoret

at the Pass

Napoleon at the Pass of Saint Bernard

Napoleon

Napoleon in his Study

Mars and Minerva

Combat of Mars and Minerva

The Oath of Horatio

The Oath of Horatio

Consecration

Consecration of the emperor Napoloen

Death of Socrates

The Death of Socrates

Christ on the Cross

Christ on the Cross

Antiochus

Antiochus and Stratonica

Andromache

Andromache Mourning Hector

Belisarious

Belisarious Receiving Alms

Cupid and Psyche

Cupid and Phycse

Comte deTurenne

Comte deTurenne

Comtesse Vilain

Comtesse Vilain the Thirteenth and her Daughter

Emmanuel Sieyes

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes

The Sabine Women

Intervention of the Sabine Woman

Mars and Venus

Mars and Venus

Jean Ingres

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Hector

Hector

Leonidas

Leonidas at Thermopylae

Madame Seriziat

Madame Emilie Seriziat and her Son

Madame Recamier

Madame Recamier

Marguerite David

Marguerite-Charlotte David

Marie-F Buron

Marie-Francoise Buron

Monsieur Lavoisier

Monsieur Lavoisier and His Wife

Patroclus

Patroclus

Philippe-de Joubert

Philippe-Laurent de Joubert

Pierre Seriziat

Pierre Seriziat

Pope Pius VII

Pope Pius the Seventh

Saint Roch

Saint Roch Asking the Virgin Mary to Heal Victims of the Plague

Self-portrait

Self-portrait

Stanislaw Potocki

Stanislaw Kostka Potocki

The Farewell

The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis

The Death of Seneca

The Death of Seneca

Zenaide -

The Sisters Zenaide and Charlotte Bonaparte

The Lictors Bring-

The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons

Helen and Paris-

The Love of Helen and Paris detail