DAVID, (Iii'vkl'„TAcQuEs Loris (174S-1825). A French historical painter. He was born in Paris, August 31, 1748. When Boucher was pros tituting his art to gratify the depraved tastes of the French populace, David became his pupil; but Boucher. recognizing the broad and noble tendency of David's mind. wisely and honorably transferred him to the influence of Vien. After many struggles, David took the Prix de Rome with his picture. "Antiochus and Stratoniee." Arriving at Rome. he found the thoughts of all directed toward antiquity. German minds—that of Winckelmann, for example, and that of Les sing—were also creating enthusiasm for Greek ideals of beauty. This view of art, widely differ ent from that prevailing in France. impressed David, who was copying the classical master pieces of the Vatican. Its influence upon him was first manifested after his return to Paris, in his picture, the "Plague of Saint Roche," painted in 1780.
More than any other painter of his time, David, with his classical tendencies, represented the spirit of the age—the reaction against the frivolous immorality of monarchical France, and the return to the stern virtues of antiquity. His `Oath of the Ho•atii" (1784) and "Brutus Con 11 is Sons to Death" (1789) were hailed with universal applause. He became the great painter of the Revolution, and presented to the (onvention, of which he was a leading spirit, the "Deathbed of Lepelletier," the first martyr of liberty. When Marat was assassinated, he was called by the Assembly to memorialize his death, and he responded with a painting in which the murdered man is portrayed with considerable naturalistic strength. Those of his works which represent what he himself lived and experienced are painted in this manner. The same is true of his portraits of the Revolutionary epoch, like those of Madame Rkamier (Louvre), of Barrere, and especially of the young Bonaparte. His chief masterpiece of the Napoleonic period was the colossal picture of the "Coronation of Napoleon 1." (finished 1807, and now at Versailles). This is a stately composition, noble in color, and with a tender, quivering light, justifying Mother's encomium of being the best historical painting of the past century. His portraits of this period,
as, for example, those of the Emperor, the Pope. and Murat, are all of the highest naturalistic merit. Upon the restoration of the Bourbons, lie was exiled to Brussels, where he died on the 29th of December, 1825. During his exile he painted the graceful portrait of the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, and his "Three Fates," in the l'raet collection, hideous old women, painted with keen realism and great pic torial strength, in a manner almost worthy of Frans Hals. All of these works show a realistic talent of the first order, with high powers as a. draughtsman and a colorist.
But this is not the only side. or even the best known side, Of David's art. Be was at heart an antiquarian, and most of his large canvases represent antique subjects. While these paint ings show great excellence of drawing, they are cold in composition and coloring, exaggerated and theatrical in action. Beside; those men tioned above, the "Death of Socrates," "Belisa runs Asking Alms" (1784). at Lille. "Leonidas at Thermopyhe" (1814), the "Rape of the Sa bines'• (1799), are among the chief of this class of his paintings. These were the works which had the greatest influence upon his pupils. Throughout the Revolution and under the Em pire, he was the supreme dictator of art in France, and his influence upon its development was very great. While lie rescued it from the littleness and trivialities of the followers of 'Watteau. he established a despotism of classi cism which had to be broken before there could lie real progre. Nevertheless, he was in a way the regenerator of modern French art, and the accuracy of his drawing exercised a salutary inluence 111)011 its development.
Stranahan. History of French Paint ing (New York, 1899) ; 'Mother. History of Modern Art, vol. ii. (London, 1890) ; Deleeluze, J. L. David (Paris. 1S55) ; Coupin, Essai sur J. L. Thrid (Paris, 1827) ; Normand, "David," in Les artistes