David, Jacques Louis (1748-1825), was the leading French painter during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. He painted primarily in the neoclassical style, which emphasises solidly modelled forms, realistic details, and balanced composition. Neoclassicists often used subjects from ancient history to make observations about contemporary events. David’s famous painting The Oath of the Horatii (1784) reflects neoclassical style and subject matter.
David was an active participant in the French Revolution and voted for the death of King Louis XVI. He started to depict the events of the revolution in the unfinished The Oath of the Tennis Court, which he began in 1791. In 1793, he painted The Death of Mart, a moving portrait of the assassinated revolutionary leader. David was an ardent supporter of Napoleon, and he glorified some of the main events of the emperor’s life in his paintings.
David was born in Paris. His work influenced many of the major artists of the 1800’s, including many members of the impressionist movement. Jacques Louis David was the leader of the neoclassical movement. He returned to the serious academic traditions that dominated French painting before the light-hearted rococo age.
In The Oath of the Horatii, David painted a straightforward story without distracting details. The clothing and architecture are based on actual historical examples from Roman antiquity. The monumental figures are arranged in rigid poses across a shallow space in imitation of sculptural decorations called friezes found in classical buildings. In the stage like setting of the painting, the harsh lighting and cool colours emphasise the crisp, hard outlines that define the forms in the composition. The surface of the painting is smooth and highly finished, emphasising the firmly modelled forms. Brushwork is rarely visible..
The Essay on Chinese Painting
Chinese Painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world, it is also known in Chinese as Guohua. Traditional painting involves essentially the same techniques as calligraphy which is done with a brush dipped in black or colored ink. Compared with the western style of painting, oils are not used in Chinese Painting. Chinese paintings were usually painted on paper or silk; ...
