In 1782, David married Marguerite Pécoul, whose father was an influential building contractor and the superintendent of construction at the Louvre. Instead, though, he became interested in the Neoclassical ideas originated in Rome by, among others, German painter Anton Raphael Mengs and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann.īack in Paris in 1780, and to much acclaim, David exhibited 'Belisarius Asking Alms,' in which he combined his own approach to antiquity with a Neoclassical style reminiscent of Nicolas Poussin. Also included in the scholarship was a trip to Italy, and in 1775, he and Vien went to Rome together, where David studied Italian masterpieces and the ruins of ancient Rome.īefore he left Paris, he proclaimed, 'The art of antiquity will not seduce me, for it lacks liveliness,' and the works of the great masters almost held him to his word, such was the pull of their genius. After several failures in competitions and finding more discouragement than support, during a period that included a suicide attempt (apparently by avoiding food), in 1774, he finally obtained the Prix de Rome, a government scholarship that ensured well-paid commissions in France. Boucher was a Rococo painter, but the Rococo era was giving way to a more classical style, so Boucher decided to send David to his friend Joseph-Marie Vien, a painter more in tune with the neoclassical reaction to Rococo.īy age 18, the gifted young artist was enrolled at the Académie Royale (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture). When David showed an interest in painting, his uncles sent him to François Boucher, a leading painter of the time and family friend. His father was killed in a duel in when David was 9 years old, and the boy was subsequently left by his mother to be raised by two uncles. Early Lifeĭavid was born on August 30, 1748, in Paris, France. One of David's most famous works, 'The Death of Marat' (1793), portrays the famous French Revolutionary figure dead in his bath after an assassination.

Jacques-Louis David was a painter of great renown as his style of history painting helped end the frivolity of the Rococo period, moving art back to the realm of classical austerity.

Jacques-Louis David by Maria Tsaneva