Jacques-Louis David

To mark the bicentenary of the death of Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), the Louvre Museum is dedicating a major retrospective to the painter of The Oath of the Horatii, The Death of Marat and The Coronation of Napoleon.

From 15 October 2025 to 26 January 2026, the exhibition will bring together around a hundred major loans, including the original version of Marat from Brussels and the monumental fragment of The Tennis Court Oath.

Considered the ‘father of the French School’, David was as much a witness to his time as he was a participant in it. A deputy of the Convention, close to Robespierre, and organiser of major revolutionary celebrations, he put his brush at the service of politics before becoming Napoleon’s official painter. His work, combining ancient rigour and emotional power, shaped the collective imagination of the Revolution and the Empire.

The exhibition offers a chronological journey, from his laborious beginnings and quest for the Prix de Rome to his exile in Brussels. It sheds light on the dual artistic and political dimensions of his work, showing how his paintings embodied the aspirations of a changing era.

Far from being frozen in the image of an austere artist, David appears here as an innovative and committed creator, training several generations of painters (including Ingres) and experimenting with new forms of staging. His art, conceived as an instrument of moral and social change, still resonates today.