Jacques Louis David was born in a prosperous family in Paris. He grew up under his talented architect uncle. His uncle sent him to a leading painter of the time, Boucher. Boucher was a Rococo painter and the Rococo Era at the time was more leaning towards a classical style. This experience greatly influenced David’s later painting style. David enrolled at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture at the age of 18. He was able to obtain the Prix De Rome later years, a government scholarship that ensured well-paid commissions in France. With this scholarship, David went on a trip to Rome to study Italian masterpieces and the ruins of ancient Rome. He was very interested in the Neoclassical ideas originated in Rome. in 1780, David exhibited “Belisarius Asking Alm”, a painting combined his own approach to antiquity and Neoclassical style.
David married to Marguerite Pecoul in 1782 and her father was the building contractor and the superintendent of construction at the Louvre. That same year, David completed the painting “Oath of the Horatii” and exhibited in the official Paris Salon of 1785. This painting symbolized the end of Rococo period. Two year later, David unveiled "The Lictors Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons." This was during the beginning of French Revolution and this painting gave David political figure in the French Revolution. In the early years of the Revolution, David was a member of the extremist Jacobin group. David was an active, politically committed artist involved in a good deal of revolutionary propaganda. He produced many works that had themed martyrs and heroic figures. The most famous painting was undoubtedly “The Death of Marat”. David gained so much power through his association with Robespierre and was the art dictator of France. He even abolished the Academie Royale. When the Revolution came to an end, David arrested and remained in prison until the amnesty of 1795. David admired Napoleon since their first meeting in 1797. After Napoleon’s coup, Napoleon commissioned David to commemorate his crossing of the Alps. David was exiled to Belgium after the fell of Napoleon in 1815. David was injured ten years into his exile. He died on December 29, 1825 in Brussels Belgium. Because he had participated in the execution of King Louis XVI, David was not allowed to be buried in France. He was buried at Evere Cemetery in Brussels but his heart was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. |
|