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.
1789. Oil on canvas. 323 x422 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1789. Oil on canvas. 323 x422 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1789. Oil on canvas. 323 x 422 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1793. Oil on canvas. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. Read Note.
1800. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1808. Oil on canvas. 621 x 979 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1814. Oil on canvas. 395 x 531 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.
1794. Oil on canvas. 55 x 65 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1795. Oil on canvas. 129 x 95 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1795. Oil on canvas. 92 x 73 cm. National Gallery, London, UK. Read Note.
1813. Oil on canvas. 72 x 63 cm. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. Read Note.
1816. Oil on canvas. 95 x 76 cm. National Gallery, London, UK. Read Note.
. Oil on canvas. 130 x 98 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Read Note.
1814. Oil on canvas. 395 x 531 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1791. Pen and brown ink, brown wash with white highlights. 66 x 101 cm. Musée National du Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, France.
1782. Oil on canvas. 276 x 188 cm. Church of St. Vincent, Mâcon, France. Read Note.
1784. Oil on canvas. 330 x 425 cm. Louvre, Paris, France.
1793. Oil on canvas. 61 x 50 cm. Kiev Museum of Western Art, Kiev, Ukraine.
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.