Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was a late 1700, early 1800 artist from France. He painted realism using oil on canvas and his work has inspired the modern romanticism style. David was born in 1748 and died in 1825. His father was Jacques-Maurice David and his mother was Marie-Genevieve Buron and he had no siblings. Jacques-Louis David was born into a prosperous family situation and got a good education at the College des Quatre-Nations and the Royal Academy in Louvre. A man named Francois Boucher was like a friend and mentor to him. He also had a good friend named Joseph-Marie Vien.
The French Revolution was taking place at the peak of David's career, so naturally the war played a bid role in his life and artwork. One of David's most famous pieces of work was a painting The Death of Marat which was based off of the actual death of his war friend Marat who was stabbed to death in his bed. This shows the brutality he faced in his reality at this time. He was imprisoned once during the revolution and still painted a masterpiece in his cell. Even Napoleon Bonaparte recognized his talent and they became close. When Bonaparte seized power he made David an official for the nation involving art. Bonaparte and David were huge propaganda influences. A well known painting of his called Napoleon on the Saint Bernard Pass shows Bonaparte crossing the Alps on a horse to conquer Ital, but in reality he did not cross the Alps to Italy and he traveled by donkey.