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Jacques-Louis David (1748 - 1825)
Owing to his extraordinary draughtsmanship, David was first destined to become an architect, which ultimately however gave way to painting. In 1766 he took up studies with Joseph-Marie Vien at the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris. After winning the Prix de Rome he studied at the Villa Medici from 1775 to 1780. His encounter with Italian art and culture, especially Bolognese painting and the work of the Caravaggisti, inspired him in his quest for a creative renewal steeped in archaeology-based classicism. In 1783 he was named a member of the Academy in Paris and was given an apartment in the Louvre; in 1804 Napoleon raised him to the position of court painter. Apart from portraiture, which increasingly moved away from idealization and more towards naturalism, David painted in a more monumental format with classical themes inspired by the Roman republican era: A subject matter that reveals him to have been an early champion of the French Revolution. |
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