David, JACQUES LOUIS, historical painter, was born at Paris, 31st August 1748. He received his first instruction from Boucher, his uncle, and at the age of twenty-one became a pupil of Vien. After several unsuccessful attempts he gained the 'prix de Rome' in 1774, and in the following year he settled in Rome, where Vien had been appointed director of the French Academy. Here he produced little in colour, but devoted himself to making accurate drawings from the antique. Six years later he returned to France, and his 'Belisarius' (1780) procured his admission to the Academy. Soon afterwards he married, and again visited Italy and also Flanders. It is in the works executed during this period, such as the celebrated 'Oath of the Horatii' (1784), 'The Death of Socrates' (1788), 'The Loves of Paris and Helen' (1788), and 'Brutus condemning his Son' (1789), that the classical feeling—founded upon sculpture and possessing much of its hardness as well as its clear-cut accuracy of form which was the painter's chief characteristic—is first clearly visible. During the Revolution David entered with enthusiasm into the political conflicts of the period. In 1792 he became a representative for Paris in the Convention. He voted for the death of Louis XVI., and was a member of the Committee of Public Safety; and he was the artistic director of the great national fêtes of the republic, which were founded on classical customs. After the death of Robespierre he was twice imprisoned, and narrowly escaped with his life. On his release in 1795 he devoted himself to his art, producing 'The Rape of the Sabines' (1799), which is usually ranked as his masterpiece. He was an original member of the Institute, and in 1804 was appointed court painter by Napoleon. After the restoration of the Bourbons, he was banished in 1816 as a regicide, and retired to Brussels, where, having declined an invitation to undertake the directorship of Fine Arts at Berlin, he died, 29th December 1825.
David's productions are distinguished by a certain austere dignity of conception and by elaborate accuracy of form. On the other hand they are often cold and unreal in sentiment, unpleasantly monotonous in colouring, and defective in their arrangements of light and shade. His art and example exercised the most powerful effect upon the French school of painting; among his pupils were Girodet, Gros, Léopold Robert, Ingres, and Gérard; and the classicism which he introduced reigned supreme until the rise of the Romantic school headed by Géricault and Delacroix. The influence which in his later days he exercised upon the school of Belgium was hardly less marked and powerful. Fourteen of his works are in the Louvre, and five—including 'Bonaparte crossing the Alps' (1805)—are at Versailles. See Le Peintre David, by his grandson, J. L. Jules David (1880).