Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David (August 30, 1748 – December 29 1825) was a highly influential French painter in the Neoclassical style. In the 1780s his cerebral brand of History painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity towards a classical austerity and severity, chiming with the moral climate of the final years of the ancien régime.

Early life

Jacques-Louis David was born into a prosperous family in Paris on August 30, 1748. When he was nine, his father was killed in a duel, and his mother left him with his prosperous architect uncles. They saw to it that he received an excellent education at the College des Quatre Nations, but he was never a good student; he had a tumor that impeded his speech, and he was always too busy drawing. He covered his notebooks with his drawings, and he once said, ?I was always hiding behind the instructor?s chair, drawing for the duration of the class.? Soon, he desired to be a painter, but his uncles and mother wanted him to be a soldier. He soon overcame the opposition, and went to learn from François Boucher, the leading painter of the time, who was also a distant relative. Boucher was a Rococo painter, which was falling out of style and becoming more classical. Boucher decided that instead of taking over David?s tutelage, he would send David to his friend Joseph-Marie Vien, a mediocre painter, but one that embraced the classical reaction to Rococo. There David attended the Royal Academy, based in what is now the Louvre.

Related Topics:
Paris - August 30 - 1748 - François Boucher - Rococo - Joseph-Marie Vien - Louvre

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David attempted to win the Prix de Rome, an art scholarship to the French Academy in Rome four times. Once, he lost, according to legend, because he had not consulted Vien, one the judges. Another time, he lost because a few other students had been competing for years, and Vien felt David?s education could wait for these other mediocre painters. In protest, he attempted to starve himself to death. Finally, in 1774, David won the Prix de Rome. Normally, he would have had to attend another school before attending the Academy in Rome, but Vien?s influence kept him out of it. He went to Italy with Vien in 1775, as Vien had been appointed director of the French Academy at Rome. Before leaving for Italy, he felt that the ancient was cold and irrelevant, but while in Italy, David observed the Italian masterpieces, and the ruins of ancient Rome. David filled sketchbooks with material that he would derive from for the rest of his life. While in Rome, he studied great masters, and came to favor above all others Raphael. In 1779, David was able to see the ruins of Pompeii, and was filled with wonder. After this, he sought to revolutionize the art world with the "eternal" concepts of classicism.

Related Topics:
Rome - Raphael - Pompeii

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