<Tr> <Th> Movement </Th> <Td> Neoclassicism </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Awards </Th> <Td> Prix de Rome Commander of the Legion of Honour </Td> </Tr> <P> Jacques - Louis David (French: (ʒaklwi david); 30 August 1748--29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era . In the 1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward classical austerity and severity and heightened feeling, harmonizing with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime . </P> <P> David later became an active supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre (1758--1794), and was effectively a dictator of the arts under the French Republic . Imprisoned after Robespierre's fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release: that of Napoleon, The First Consul of France . At this time he developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours . After Napoleon's fall from Imperial power and the Bourbon revival, David exiled himself to Brussels, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he remained until his death . David had a large number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century, especially academic Salon painting . </P>

This french artist was the most important neoclassical history painter