Jacques-Louis David

He was struck by a carriage as he was leaving a theater in December 1825 and died a few days later on December 29, 1825.

He was born into a wealthy family on 30 August, 1748, in Paris. His father was killed in a duel when David was just nine and he was sent to live with his uncles.

He had a facial tumor that impeded his speech and made it difficult for him to socialize. He loved drawing from a young age and used to draw behind his teacher’s back even when he was at school.

His uncles were rich architects and sent him to the prestigious Collège des Quatre-Nations. The uncles hoped that young David would follow their footsteps and become an architect himself. But the boy wanted to become a painter.

Rebelling against his family, he went to learn painting from François Boucher, one of the leading painters of the time. Boucher felt that his friend Joseph-Marie Vien would be a better teacher and sent David to him.

David then attended the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Each year the Academy awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome scholarship for which he diligently worked. After several failed attempts, he finally won it in 1774. The award funded a stay in Rome and he traveled to Italy with his mentor, Joseph-Marie Vien.

In 1784 he painted the ‘Oath of the Horatii’ which depicts a scene from a Roman legend which stresses the importance of self-sacrifice for one’s country. The painting was an immediate success and became very famous.

He displayed the painting ‘Death of Socrates’ in the salon of 1787. The poignant depiction of Socrates’ last lecture before he consumes hemlock brew and dies struck a chord with the viewers and till date remains a favorite of critics.

Painted in the Neo-Classical manner, his ‘The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons’ (1789) shows the Roman leader Brutus grieving over the death of his sons who had ironically been killed at his own orders.

He painted ‘The Death of Marat’ in 1793, a painting which would go on to become a famous image of the French Revolution in which he took an active interest. The painting shows the journalist Jean-Paul Marat lying dead in his bath, murdered by Charlotte Corday.

Due to his political activities, he had been imprisoned in Luxembourg Palace in 1795 and there he conceived the idea to paint ‘The Intervention of the Sabine Women’ which was ultimately completed in 1799. It depicts the Sabine women interposing themselves to separate the Romans and Sabines.

His painting ‘The Death of Socrates’ depicting the last moments of the great Greek philosopher is considered one of his masterpieces. The painting shows Socrates sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock, delivering his final lesson on death to his students as they watch him sadly.