Collection: Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David (30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward classical austerity, severity, and heightened feeling, which harmonized with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime. David later became an active supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794), and was effectively a dictator of the arts under the French Republic.

Imprisoned after Robespierre's fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release: that of Napoleon, the First Consul of France. At this time he developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours. After Napoleon's fall from Imperial power and the Bourbon revival, David exiled himself to Brussels, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he remained until his death.

David had many pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century, especially academic Salon painting. David's career spans six different political regimes in France. He was a prolific artist and produced imagery that has entered the collective imagination.

He studied under Joseph-Marie Vien. Among his canonical works are Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his wife, The Oath of the Horatii, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, and The Coronation of Napoleon. He worked primarily in allegory, religious painting, and landscape painting. His work is rooted in Neoclassicism.