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Oil Paintings By David, Jacques-Louis

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1835)
  • French painter
  • Biography:
    Jacques-Louis David was born into a prosperous middle-class family in Paris on August 30, 1748. In 1757 his mother left him to be raised by his uncles after his father was killed.

    He was never a good student in school- in his own words, "I was always hiding behind the instructors chair, drawing for the duration of the class".

    When David was 16 he began studying art at the Acad¨¦mie Royale under the rococo painter J. M. Vien. After many unsuccessful attempts, he finally won the Prix de Rome in 1774, and on the ensuing trip to Italy he was strongly influenced by classical art and by the classically inspired work of the 17th-century painter Nicolas Poussin. David quickly evolved his own individual neoclassical style, drawing subject matter from ancient sources and basing form and gesture on Roman sculpture. His famous "Oath of the Horatii" was consciously intended as a proclamation of the new neoclassical style in which dramatic lighting, ideal forms, and gestural clarity are emphasized. Presenting a lofty moralistic (and by implication patriotic) theme, the work became the principal model for noble and heroic historical painting of the next two decades. It also launched his popularity and awarded him the right to take on his own students.

    After 1789, David adopted a realistic rather than neoclassical painting style in order to record scenes of the French Revolution (1789-1799). David was very active in the Revolution, being elected a deputy to the National Convention on September 17, 1792. He took his place with the extremists known as the Montagnards- along with Marat, Danton, and Robespierre.

    During this time he had produced deeds both positive and negative: On the positive side he proposed the establishment of an inventory of all national treasures- making him one of the founders of France's museums. In fact, he played an active role in the organization of the future Louvre, Paris.

    On the negative side, his radicalism during the Revolution bred within him a certain madness. He was appointed to the Committee of General Security in 1793- which gave him the power to sign nearly 300 arrested individuals to be guillotined. After the end of the Revolution, imprisoned because of his actions during the Reign of Terror, he wrote a letter to a friend stating, "I believed, in accepting the post of legislator- an honorable post, but one very difficult to fulfill- that an upright heart would suffice, but I was lacking in the second quality, by which mean insight." A delegation of his students demanded his release, and he was freed on December 28, 1794.

    Near the end of 1797 he met Napoleon Bonaparte. From 1799 to 1815 he was Napoleon's official painter, chronicling the reign of Napoleon I in huge works such as "The Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine". Following Napoleon's downfall in 1815, David was exiled to Brussels, where he returned to mythological subjects drawn from the Greek and Roman past. He stayed there until his death on 29, 1825.

    David, throughout his career, was also a prolific portraitist. Smaller in scale and more intimately human than his larger works, his portraits, such as the famous "Madame R¨¦camier", show great technical mastery and understanding of character. Many modern critics consider them his best work, especially because they are free from the moralizing messages and sometimes stilted technique of his neoclassical works.

    David's career represents the transition from the rococo of the 18th century to the realism of the 19th. His cool studied neoclassicism strongly influenced his pupils Antoine Jean Gros and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and his patriotic and heroic themes paved the way for the romantics.

  • Further Reading On Jacques-Louis David: "Jacques-Louis David, French painter. He was a supporter of the French Revolution and one of the leading figures of Neoclassicism. He was a distant relative of Boucher, who perhaps helped his early artistic progress as a pupil under Vien (1765). He won the Prix de Rome in 1774 and travelled with his master to Rome where he spent six years. It was during this period (1775-81), that he abandoned the grand manner of his early work, with its Baroque use of lighting and composition for a stark, highly finished and morally didactic style. This was influenced by the ideas then current in Rome (Winckelmann) and by artists such as Hamilton who were already experimenting with a Neoclassical idiom. In 1784 the change of style was confirmed by the Oath of the Horatii (Paris, Louvre), probably the most famous and certainly the most severe of a series of works which extolled the antique virtues of stoicism, masculinity and patriotism. During the French Revolution, David played an active role both artistically he reorganized the Acad¨¦me and produced numerous and spectacular propaganda exercises - and politically, as an avid supporter of Robespierre, who voted for the execution of the king. He also attempted to catalogue the new heroes of the age, abortively in the Oath of the Tennis Court, and successfully in his pieta-like portrayal of the Death of Marat (1793, Brussels, Mus¨¦e Royaux). He eventually lost out in the confused politics of the 1790s, was imprisoned under the moderate Directory and saved by the intervention of his estranged wife, symbolized in his Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799, Paris, Louvre), a work which strained his Classicism in the search for Greek purity. In 1799 Napoleon gained power, and David gained a new hero. He recorded the general and later the Emperor in numerous propaganda pieces (e.g. Napoleon at Mont St Bernard, 1800, Versailles; The Crowning of Josephine) in which his sobriety was loosened by Napoleon's demand for grandeur. In professional terms, he failed to survive the fall of his master, and in 1815 retired in exile to Brussels, where he continued to work in a highly finished Classical vein, but resorted to myth for his subject-matter (e.g. The Disarming of Mars). Throughout his career he produced portraiture which not only catalogued the changing political spectrum, but also his own artistic developments (e.g. Antoine Lavoisier and his Wife, 1788, New York, Metropolitan Museum). He was also a great teacher, numbering among his pupils Gros, Ingres, Gerard and Girodet, although few of them actually followed the severity of his style." From "The Bulfinch Guide to Art History"

    Sorted by name - [Ascending] - [Descending]
    Name Price Thumbnail Image Description
    Andromache Mourning Hector Price
    Was: $239.90
    Now: $119.95
    Andromache Mourning Hector
  • Title: Andromache Mourning Hector 1783
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Anne-Marie-Louise Th¨¦lusson, Comtesse de Sorcy - Jacques-Louis Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Anne-Marie-Louise Th¨¦lusson, Comtesse de Sorcy - Jacques-Louis
  • Title: Anne-Marie-Louise Th¨¦lusson, Comtesse de Sorcy 1790
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Antiochus and Stratonice Price
    Was: $299.90
    Now: $149.95
    Antiochus and Stratonice
  • Title: Antiochus and Stratonice 1774
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
  • Bonaparte on Grand-Saint-Bernard pass Price
    Was: $218.09
    Now: $119.95
    Bonaparte on Grand-Saint-Bernard pass
  • Title: Bonaparte on Grand-Saint-Bernard pass 1800
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
  • Bonaparte, Calm on a Fiery Steed, Crossing the Alps Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Bonaparte, Calm on a Fiery Steed, Crossing the Alps
  • Title: Bonaparte, Calm on a Fiery Steed, Crossing the Alps 1801
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
  • Christ on the Cross Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Christ on the Cross
  • Title: Christ on the Cross 1782
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Count Potocki - Jacques-Louis David Price
    Was: $218.09
    Now: $119.95
    Count Potocki - Jacques-Louis David
  • Title: Count Potocki 1781
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Description: David received a lucrative ...
  • Cupid and Psyche Price
    Was: $181.73
    Now: $99.95
    Cupid and Psyche
  • Title: Cupid and Psyche 1817
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Death of Marat - Jacques-Louis David Price
    Was: $128.33
    Now: $77.00
    Death of Marat - Jacques-Louis David
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David
  • Title: Death of Marat,1793
  • General Gerard Price
    Was: $137.50
    Now: $55.00
    General Gerard
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David
  • Title: General Gerard, 1816
  • Jacobus Blauw Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Jacobus Blauw
  • Title: Jacobus Blauw 1795
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Madame Raymond de Verninac Price
    Was: $181.73
    Now: $99.95
    Madame Raymond de Verninac
  • Title: Madame Raymond de Verninac 1798-99
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Madame R¨¦camier Price
    Was: $181.73
    Now: $99.95
    Madame R¨¦camier
  • Title: Madame R¨¦camier 1800
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Madame Trudaine Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Madame Trudaine
  • Title: Madame Trudaine c. 1792
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Male Nude known as Hector Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Male Nude known as Hector
  • Title: Male Nude known as Hector
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
  • Male Nude known as Patroclus Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Male Nude known as Patroclus
  • Title: Male Nude known as Patroclus
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
  • Mars Disarmed by Venus and the Three Graces Price
    Was: $239.90
    Now: $119.95
    Mars Disarmed by Venus and the Three Graces
  • Title: Mars Disarmed by Venus and the Three Graces 1824
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David( French Painter 1748-1825)
  • Monsieur Lavoisier and his Wife Price
    Was: $194.00
    Now: $97.00
    Monsieur Lavoisier and his Wife
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David
  • Title: Monsieur Lavoisier and his Wife, 1788
  • Description: Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) was an eminent scientist...
  • Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass
  • Title: Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass 1801
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
  • Napoleon in His Study Price
    Was: $274.88
    Now: $109.95
    Napoleon in His Study
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David
  • Title: Napoleon in His Study, 1812
  • Description: Totally unlike traditional ...
  • Portrait of a Young Woman in a Turban Price
    Was: $199.90
    Now: $99.95
    Portrait of a Young Woman in a Turban
  • Title: Portrait of a Young Woman in a Turban
  • Artist: Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
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