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.