David [Anglais] [Broché]

Writing on the French Revolution, Karl Marx famously commented that the heroes of the revolution "performed the task of their time in Roman costume and with Roman phrases." The one painter who was almost single-handedly responsible for clothing the revolution in the mantle of the classical past was Jacques Louis David (1748-1825), one of the most controversial painters to have emerged from this turbulent period in the history of modern France. Although David's austere classical style has fallen out of fashion in recent years, Simon Lee's study David does a fine job of rescuing the artist from antiquarian curiosity, and placing him right back at the heart of revolutionary France.

Lee charts the rise of David from relative mediocrity as a highly academic painter to his enthusiastic support for the Revolution of 1789, culminating in his remarkable painting Marat Breathing His Last (1793). Arrested and narrowly avoiding execution in the political backlash following the overthrow of Robespierre, David turned his back on politics to concentrate on his art, only to find himself catapulted back into the political limelight with his fervent embrace of Napoleon Bonaparte. This loyalty formed the foundation of some of David's most imposing paintings, from the equestrian portraits of Napoleon to the pomp of The Coronation of the Emperor and Empress. But once again, David's political hopes were dashed with Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, which led the painter into self-imposed exile in Brussels, where he died a decade later.

Despite Lee's rather wooden prose, this is a thorough, detailed, and generously illustrated study of a fascinatingly contradictory, patrician, but technically brilliant painter. --Jerry Brotton

Plus que tout autre œuvre, celui de Jacques Louis David (1748-1825) est exemplaire des bouleversements politiques liés à la Révolution française. Militant passionné, il accueillit avec ferveur la promesse d'un changement social ; artiste de renom, il glorifia de son pinceau les héros et les martyrs de la Révolution ; l'opinion politique changeant, il devint par la suite le peintre officiel de Napoléon. Sa célébration de la pompe impériale contribua au culte de l'héroïsme militaire. Dans ce texte captivant, Simon Lee présente l'œuvre du plus grand peintre européen de cette époque qui poussa à la perfection un style pictural à la fois noble et dramatique en parfaite corrélation avec un siècle qui accordait à l'image un pouvoir moral. Maître incontesté de ce que l'on devait appeler le néoclassicisme, il sut reconsidérer son idéal de beauté formelle. Cet ouvrage aborde pour la première fois tous les aspects de la carrière du peintre, de ses affinités intellectuelles à ses relations avec ses commanditaires en passant par son sens accru des affaires. Les thèses les plus récentes sont ici reprises afin d'analyser les innovations stylistiques de l'artiste, ses engagements politiques, sa quête d'un public nouveau et ses conceptions esthétiques variées concernant la représentation du patriotisme et de la vertu. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .

More than any other artist, Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) is identified with the dramatic upheaval of the French Revolution. As a politician, he welcomed the promise of social change; as an artist he used his brush to glorify the Revolution's heroes and martyrs. When the political tide changed, David became Napoleon's chief painter, capturing the imperial pomp and contributing to the cult of military heroism. In this engrossing account Simon Lee argues that David was the single most important European painter of the age, perfecting a style of dramatic and noble painting that matched exactly the contemporary desire for morally elevating images. A leading exponent of what was to be termed Neoclassicism, David was, however, capable of departing considerably from its ideals of understatement and restraint. Lee's account is the first to trace all aspects of David's career, from his intellectual interests to his entrepreneurial skills and his relationships with patrons.

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was the most important European artist in a period of extraordinary upheaval. A participant in the French Revolution, he then witnessed the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. A revolutionary in both art and life, David took painting away from the frivolity of the Rococo towards the dramatic moral force of neoclassicism. Passionate, intense, fiercely ambitious and a shrewd businessman, David brought to life in his paintings the heroic deeds of the ancient world, commemorated the revolutionary years in France and glorified the reign of Napoleon. In this comprehensive book Simon Lee employs up-to-date scholarship to present a view of David that incorporates artistic, political and social concerns. It deals with all aspects of his career and character and traces his changing relationships with his patrons. Lee follows David's career from his early student years in Rome, through his time as chief artist to the revolutionary government and Napoleon, to his life in exile in Brussels.

Simon Lee est maître de conférences et directeur du département d'histoire de l'art à l'université de Reading. Il est spécialiste de l'art français des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. --Ce texte fait référence à lédition Broché .