Jacques-Louis David

Life and work

This commission eventually led David to join the Jacobins and become involved in politics.^[3] Accompanied by his teacher Joseph-Marie Vien, who had recently been named director of the French Academy in Rome, David departed for Italy in October 1775.^[3] Through an introduction, David met the painter Raphael Mengs, who promoted the thorough study of classical sources and strict adherence to ancient artistic models.^[4] After coming back to Paris in July 1780, David was granted full membership in the Royal Academy.^[3]

In 1784, while residing in Rome, David created Oath of the Horatii, a work that alludes to Enlightenment ideals and Rousseau's concept of the social contract.^[5] The portrait of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier, painted by David, was barred from the 1789 salon because the authorities worried it would stir revolutionary fervor.^[6]

What the cited sources add

The Louvre Museum exhibition description states David is considered the father of the French School and that his paintings are the filter through which we picture the great moments of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire.^[7] The same source notes David's paintings are more intensely charged with feeling than is belied by their extreme rigour.^[7] The last major monographic exhibition devoted to David was held at the Louvre and Château de Versailles in 1989 for bicentennial commemorations of the French Revolution.^[7]