David was born into the family of a wealthy Parisian merchant on August 30, 1748. When the boy was about 10 years old his father, Louis-Maurice, died after a pistol duel. David's two uncles, François Buron (1731-1818) and Jacques- François Desmaisons (c.1720-89) who were both architects and building contractors, took care of the boy's upbringing. First he was educated at a boarding school and the Collège des Quatre Nations in Paris. When he decided on the career of an artist his uncles helped him to become a student of Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809), a professor at the Academy who had a reputation as a good teacher.
c.1769. Oil on canvas. 66 x 54 cm. Musee National des Beaux-Arts, Algiers.
1771. Oil on canvas. 146 x 181 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1773. Colored chalks on paper. 53.5 x 41 cm. Ecole Nationale Superiere des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France.
1774. Oil on canvas. 120 x 155 cm. École Nationale Supériere des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France. Read Note.
1778. Oil on canvas. 94 x 218 cm. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland. Read Note.
1780. Oil on canvas. 260 x 195 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille, France. Read Note.
1780. Oil on canvas. 304 x 218 cm. National Museum, Warsaw, Poland. Read Note.
1781. Oil on canvas. 288 x 312 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France.
1782. Oil on canvas. 276 x 188 cm. Church of St. Vincent, Mâcon, France. Read Note.
1783. Oil on canvas. 72 x 91 cm. Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France.
1783. Oil on canvas. The Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia. Read Note.
1784. Oil on canvas. 330 x 425 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1784. Oil on canvas. 330 x 425 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1784. Oil on canvas. 92 x 73 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1784. Oil on canvas. 93 x 72 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1787. Oil on canvas. 129.5 x 196 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Read Note.
1788. Oil on canvas. 147 x 180 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1788. Oil on canvas. 259.7 x 196 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Read Note.
1789. Oil on canvas. 323 x422 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1789. Oil on canvas. 323 x422 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
Jacques-Louis David. by I. Kuznetsova. Moscow. 1965.
David. by Simon Lee. Phaidon. 1999.
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
Neoclassicism (Art & Ideas) by David G. Irwin. Phaidon Press Inc., 1997.
Jacques-Louis David, Revolutionary Artist: Art, Politics, and the French Revolution by Warren Roberts. Univ of North Carolina Pr, 1992.
Jacques-Louis David by Dorothy Johnson. Princeton Univ Pr, 1993.
Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile by Philippe Bordes. Clark Art Institute, 2005.
Jacques-Louis David's'Marat' by Will Vaughn, Helen Weston. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Portraiture in Paris Around 1800: Cooper Penrose by Jacques-Louis David by Philippe Bordes. Timken Museum of Art, 2004.