1748-1825
French Neoclassical Painter
Influences: Baroque Style, High Renaissance, Nicolas Poussin and Raphael
Education - Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, Paris, France
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Jacques-Louis David was a great artist as well as the chief propaganda minister of the French Revolution. He is considered the father of the Neoclassical art movement because his compositions are balanced and synchronized, and the subjects were generally Roman inspired, emphasizing loyalty to the state. His very first paintings, the Oath of Horatii and Brutus, painted in Rome in 1784, were heralds of the French Revolution. The fantasy-based aristocratic art of the Rococo seemed an insult upon the rights of men and was vilified by critics and the general public. David depicted the heroes of the revolution, giving them impressive powerfully built physic like that of a gladiator rushing into the arena.
David revered the bloody-handed terrorist Marat and contemplated suicide when his idol was assassinated. During the notorious Reign of Terror, one of his favorite pastime was watching political prisoners, men and woman, being executed. He would arrive at lunchtime with his political cronies and toast the air as "la guillotine" sliced off one head after another. He voted to approve the execution of King Louie as well as poor Antoinette. David was a political toady and brown noser of the worst sort. He idolized Napoleon and liked to portray the tiny, balding, pudgy, unattractive emperor as a tall godlike man. He depicted Bonaparte as heroic Caesar even giving him a majestic golden wreath.
Jacques-Louis David Quote
Not by
pleasing the eye do works of
art accomplish their
purpose. The demand now is
for examples of heroism and
civic virtues which will
electrify the soul of the
people and arose in them
devotion to the fatherland.
- Jacques-Louis David
(stated during the session
of the jury of the Salon of
1781)
The artist must be a
philosopher.-- Jacques-Louis
David
I am the greatest painter
the world has ever known,
why should I be humble? --
Jacques-Louis David Quote
I believed, in accepting the
post of legislator — an
honorable post, but one very
difficult to fulfill — that
an upright heart would
suffice, but I was lacking
in the second quality, by
which mean insight. --
Jacques-Louis David Quote
I hated school. The masters
always beating us with
sticks and worse. I was
always hiding behind the
instructors chair, drawing
for the duration of the
class.-- Jacques-Louis David
Quote
The period is called neoclassical because its artists looked back to the art and culture of classical Greece and Rome. The spread of Neoclassical Art was primarily inspired by recent roman archeological excavations, including Pompeii and by the gay German classical archaeologist and art critic Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Winckelmann touted the homoeroticism of Greco-Roman art, "beauty is rather male than female. But the beauty of art demands a higher sensibility than the beauty of nature, because the beauty of art, like tears shed at a play, gives no pain, is without life, and must be awakened and repaired by culture. Now, as the spirit of culture is much more ardent in youth than in manhood, the instinct of which I am speaking must be exercised and directed to what is beautiful, before that age is reached, at which one would be afraid to confess that one had no taste for it.” His enthusiastic descriptions of art from Classical Antiquity encouraged an interest in Greek antiquities.
Neoclassical art is characterized by its classical form and structure, clarity, and to an degree, realism. More than just a classical revival, Neo-Classicism was directly connected to contemporary political events. Neo-Classical artists at first wanted to supplant the eroticism and frivolity of the Rococo style with a style that was orderly and serious in character. French Neoclassism painters emphasis's patriotism, as well as a sense of civility and honorableness. The movement was particularly connected with the beliefs of the French Revolution and was seen as anti-aristocratic. The fantasy-based aristocratic art of the Rococo seemed an insult upon the rights of men and was vilified by critics and the general public. In an age of sweeping revolution and transformation Neoclassicism became the art of change.
Major Artists of the Neoclassical Period
James Barry Irish, 1741-1806
Antonio Canova
Italian, 1757-1822
Jacques-Louis David
French, 1748-1825
Jules Elie
Delaunay French, 1828-1891
Francois Gerard
French, 1770-1837
Antoine-Jean Gros
French, 1771-1835
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres French, 1780-1867
Angelica
Kauffmann Swiss, 1741-1807
Rembrandt Peale
American, 1778-1860
Bertel
Thorvaldsen Danish, 1770-1844
John Trumbull
American, 1756-1843
Elisabeth
Vigee-Lebrun French, 1755-1842
Benjamin West
American, 1738-1820
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