Jacques-Louis David

Born in Paris, David studied with Vien, whom he accompanied to Italy after winning the Prix de Rome in 1774. The leading painter of France a decade later, he played a major political role in the Revolution and set down some of its greatest images. David served Napoleon as his official painter. After the Emperor’s fall, he went into exile in Brussels, where he died.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.