70 Facts About Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era.

Jacques-Louis David had many pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century, especially academic Salon painting.

Jacques-Louis David covered his notebooks with drawings, and he once said, "I was always hiding behind the instructor's chair, drawing for the duration of the class".

Jacques-Louis David overcame the opposition, and went to learn from Francois Boucher, the leading painter of the time, who was a distant relative.

Jacques-Louis David made three consecutive attempts to win the annual prize, with each failure allegedly contributing to his lifelong grudge against the institution.

Finally, in 1774, Jacques-Louis David was awarded the Prix de Rome on the strength of his painting of Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus' Disease, a subject set by the judges.

Jacques-Louis David was introduced to the painter Raphael Mengs, who opposed the Rococo tendency to sweeten and trivialize ancient subjects, advocating instead the rigorous study of classical sources and close adherence to ancient models.

Mengs' principled, historicizing approach to the representation of classical subjects profoundly influenced Jacques-Louis David's pre-revolutionary painting, such as The Vestal Virgin, probably from the 1780s.

Jacques-Louis David's stay at the French Academy in Rome was extended by a year.

Jacques-Louis David sent the Academy two paintings, and both were included in the Salon of 1781, a high honor.

Jacques-Louis David was praised by his famous contemporary painters, but the administration of the Royal Academy was very hostile to this young upstart.

In Rome, Jacques-Louis David painted his famous Oath of the Horatii, 1784.

Jacques-Louis David depicts the father with his back to the women, shutting them out of the oath.

In 1787, Jacques-Louis David did not become the Director of the French Academy in Rome, which was a position he wanted dearly.

The Count in charge of the appointments said Jacques-Louis David was too young, but said he would support him in 6 to 12 years.

Jacques-Louis David's portrait of Lavoisier, who was a chemist and physicist as well as an active member of the Jacobin party, was banned by the authorities for such reasons.

Soon, Jacques-Louis David turned his critical sights on the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

Jacques-Louis David then began work on something that would later hound him: propaganda for the new republic.

Jacques-Louis David's painting of Brutus was shown during the play Brutus by Voltaire.

In 1789, Jacques-Louis David attempted to leave his artistic mark on the historical beginnings of the French Revolution with his painting of The Oath of the Tennis Court.

Jacques-Louis David undertook this task not out of personal political conviction but rather because he was commissioned to do so.

Jacques-Louis David was enlisted by the Society of Friends of the Constitution, the body that would eventually form the Jacobins, to enshrine this symbolic event.

Jacques-Louis David set out in 1790 to transform the contemporary event into a major historical picture which would appear at the Salon of 1791 as a large pen-and-ink drawing.

The outstretched arms which are prominent in both works betray Jacques-Louis David's deeply held belief that acts of republican virtue akin to those of the Romans were being played out in France.

In what was essentially an act of intellect and reason, Jacques-Louis David creates an air of drama in this work.

In 1791, Jacques-Louis David was appointed to head the organizing committee for the ceremony, a parade through the streets of Paris to the Pantheon.

Jacques-Louis David went on to organize festivals for martyrs that died fighting royalists.

Jacques-Louis David incorporated many revolutionary symbols into these theatrical performances and orchestrated ceremonial rituals, in effect radicalizing the applied arts themselves.

The most popular symbol for which Jacques-Louis David was responsible as propaganda minister was drawn from classical Greek images; changing and transforming them with contemporary politics.

The ideals that Jacques-Louis David linked to his Hercules single-handedly transformed the figure from a sign of the old regime into a powerful new symbol of revolution.

Jacques-Louis David took one of the favorite signs of monarchy and reproduced, elevated, and monumentalized it into the sign of its opposite.

The National Convention held the trial of Louis XVI; Jacques-Louis David voted for the death of the King, causing his wife, Marguerite Charlotte, a royalist, to divorce him.

Jacques-Louis David was called upon to organize a funeral, and he painted Le Peletier Assassinated.

Jacques-Louis David gained entrance to Marat's house on the pretense of presenting him a list of people who should be executed as enemies of France.

Corday was of an opposing political party, whose name can be seen in the note Marat holds in Jacques-Louis David's subsequent painting, The Death of Marat.

Jacques-Louis David organized a spectacular funeral, and Marat was buried in the Pantheon.

Jacques-Louis David organized his last festival: the festival of the Supreme Being.

Jacques-Louis David conceived a new style for this painting, one which he called the "Pure Greek Style", as opposed to the "Roman style" of his earlier historical paintings.

When Jacques-Louis David was finally released to the country, France had changed.

Jacques-Louis David's wife managed to get him released from prison, and he wrote letters to his former wife, and told her he never ceased loving her.

The Director Barras believed that Jacques-Louis David was "tricked" into signing, although one of Jacques-Louis David's students recalled that in 1798 his master lamented the fact that masterpieces had been imported from Italy.

Jacques-Louis David's close association with the Committee of Public Safety during the Terror resulted in his signing of the death warrant for Alexandre de Beauharnais, a minor noble.

Jacques-Louis David had been an admirer of Napoleon from their first meeting, struck by Bonaparte's classical features.

Jacques-Louis David recorded the face of the conqueror of Italy, but the full composition of Napoleon holding the peace treaty with Austria remains unfinished.

Bonaparte had high esteem for Jacques-Louis David, and asked him to accompany him to Egypt in 1798, but Jacques-Louis David refused, seemingly unwilling to give up the material comfort, safety, and peace of mind he had obtained through the years.

One of the works Jacques-Louis David was commissioned for was The Coronation of Napoleon.

Jacques-Louis David had plans of Notre Dame delivered and participants in the coronation came to his studio to pose individually, though never the Emperor.

Jacques-Louis David did manage to get a private sitting with the Empress Josephine and Napoleon's sister, Caroline Murat, through the intervention of erstwhile art patron Marshal Joachim Murat, the Emperor's brother-in-law.

Jacques-Louis David was made a Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1803.

Jacques-Louis David created his last great work, Mars Being Disarmed by Venus and the Three Graces, from 1822 to 1824.

When Jacques-Louis David was leaving a theater, the driver of a carriage struck him, and he later died, on 29 December 1825.

Jacques-Louis David was sometimes referred to as "Jacques-Louis David of the Tumor".

Jacques-Louis David's portraits were characterized by a sense of truth and realism.

Jacques-Louis David focused on defining his subjects' features and characters without idealizing them.

Jacques-Louis David puts a great deal of detail into his portraits, defining smaller features like hands and fabric.

Jacques-Louis David's features are un-idealized and truthful to her appearance.

Jacques-Louis David leans on his shoulder while he pauses from his work to look up at her.

Jacques-Louis David painted these portraits of Madame and Monsieur Seriziat out of gratitude for letting him stay with them after he was in jail.

The shift in Jacques-Louis David's perspective played an important role in the paintings of Jacques-Louis David's later life, including this one of Sieyes.

Jacques-Louis David organized revolutionary festivals and painted portraits of martyrs of the revolution, such as Lepeletier, who was assassinated for voting for the death of the king.

Jacques-Louis David was an impassioned speaker at times in the National Assembly.

Jacques-Louis David was, in his time, regarded as the leading painter in France, and arguably all of Western Europe; many of the painters honored by the restored Bourbons following the French Revolution had been David's pupils.

Jacques-Louis David invested in the formation of young artists for the Rome Prize, which was a way to pursue his old rivalry with other contemporary painters such as Joseph-Benoit Suvee, who had started teaching classes.

Jacques-Louis David called on the more advanced students, such as Jerome-Martin Langlois, to help him paint his large canvases.

Jacques-Louis David's style came under the most serious criticism for being static, rigid, and uniform throughout all his work.

Jacques-Louis David's art was attacked for being cold and lacking warmth.

Jacques-Louis David made his career precisely by challenging what he saw as the earlier rigidity and conformity of the French Royal Academy's approach to art.

Jacques-Louis David sent many people to the guillotine and personally signed the death warrants for King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Jacques-Louis David had been accused of crimes against the Republic, most notably possessing stolen items.

Jacques-Louis David refused to intervene in her favor, and she was executed.