Neoclassicism (c. 1760-1810)

Jacques Louis David invented a style reflecting Enlightenment ideas by looking back to ancient art. He became a revolutionary and 1st painter to Napoleon.

Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist, Portrait d'une négresse, 1800, oil on canvas, Paris, Musée du Louvre — This portrait of an unnamed woman speaks volumes about slavery, politics, and gender in revolutionary France.

Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine

Napoleon (detail), Jacques-Louis David, The Emperor Napoleon in his Study at the Tuileries, 1812, oil on canvas, 203.9 x 125.1 cm (National Gallery of Art) — As the low candles and late hour suggest, Napoleon is short on time. David captures the twilight of his reign.

David, The Emperor Napoleon in His Study ...

David, Brutus drawing — Rendering the grief of wives and daughters, David depicts the wrenching domestic aftermath of personal sacrifice.

David, Study for The Lictors Bringing Brutus ...

Canova Penitent Mary Magdalene- detail — The novelist Stendhal called this sculpture “the greatest work of modern times.” Canova disagreed.

Antonio Canova, Penitent Magdalene

Soufflot, Le Pantheon — Uniting ancient Greek purity with Gothic daring, this church marked a new direction for French architecture.

Soufflot, The Panthéon (Church of Ste-Geneviève), Paris

Pierre-Alexandre Barthélémy Vignon, completed by Jacques-Marie Huvé, Church of La Madeleine, 1807-45 — This Neoclassical monument to Napoleon’s army was modeled on an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes, just much bigger.

Vignon, Church of La Madeleine

Antonio Canova, Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorious, 1804-08 — Napoleon’s sister courted controversy and posed semi-nude for Canova, who sculpted her as a modern-day Venus.

Antonio Canova, Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorious

Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures — This Swiss-born artist painted Roman stories with moralizing messages. Here, Cornelia provides a model of virtue.

Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Pointing to her Children ...

David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps — Was this the beginning of the end for David—or a new dawn? As far as portraits of Napoleon go, there’s none better.

Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps

David, Death of Murat — This idealized portrait celebrates Republican ideals and memorializes a Revolutionary martyr in the pose of Christ.

Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil on canvas, 3.3 x 4.25m, painted in Rome, exhibited at the salon of 1785 (Musée du Louvre) — Rejecting the Rococo, artists valued moderation and favored a clear drawing style more in line with the times.

Neoclassicism, an introduction

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1785, oil on canvas, 3.3 x 4.25m, commissioned by Louis XVI, painted in Rome, exhibited at the salon of 1785 (Musée du Louvre) — In style and story, this rigorously organized canvas looked back to antiquity; it soon became an icon of Revolution.

Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii

Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving A Lecture at the Orrery, c. 1765, oil on canvas, 147 x 203 cm (Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, England)-detail — Thinkers like Rousseau and Voltaire illuminated the world, just as Wright’s paintings shed light on new machinery.

The Age of Enlightenment, an introduction

Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, The Sleep of Endymion, 1791, oil on canvas, 1.98 x 2.61m (6 feet 5-¾ inches x 8 feet 6-¾ inches), exhibited in the salons of 1793 and 1814 (Musée du Louvre, Paris)-detail — Girodet references ancient Greek sculpture but his softness anticipates Romanticism. The entire painting glows!

Anne-Louis Girodet, The Sleep of Endymion

Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1789, oil on canvas, 10' 7-1/8" x 13' 10-1/8" or 3.23 x 4.22m (Musée du Louvre, Paris)-thumb — The stark space of this painting echoes the stoicism of its narrative—and reflects David’s research into antiquity.

David, The Lictors Returning to Brutus the ...

Jacques-Louis David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799, Oil on canvas, 12 feet, 8 inches x 17 feet and 3/4 of an inch or 3.85 x 5.22 m (Musée du Louvre, Paris) — Think of the children! In contrast to David’s earlier paintings, this scene extols the strength of women.

Jacques-Louis David, The Intervention of the Sabine ...