PARIS.- David is a towering figure. Considered the father of the French School, revered for breathing new life into painting, he produced imagery that to this day inhabits the collective imagination: from The Death of Marat to Napoleon Crossing the Alps and The Coronation of Napoleon, his paintings are the filter through which we picture the great moments of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, while his portraits bring to life the society of this period.

To mark the bicentennial of his death in exile in Brussels in 1825, the Musée du Louvre is offering a new perspective on a figure and body of work of extraordinary richness and diversity. The exhibition shines a light on the inventive force and expressive power of the art of Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), whose paintings are more intensely charged with feeling than is belied by their extreme rigour.

The exhibition spans the long career of an artist who witnessed six different political regimes and actively participated in the French Revolution. It gathers 100 works on special loan, including the imposing, incomplete Tennis Court Oath (Château de Versailles, long-term loan from the Musée du Louvre), and the original version of his masterpiece, the celebrated Death of Marat (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels).

A project of such ambition could only be undertaken at the Louvre, which holds the largest existing collection of the artist's paintings and drawings – including, first and foremost, his very large canvasses. The last major monographic exhibition devoted to David was held at the Louvre and the Château de Versailles in 1989 for bicentennial commemorations of the French Revolution.

Enhanced by research conducted in the ensuing three decades, the 2025 exhibition will present a new survey revealing the unprecedented richness of David's journey, combining artistic and political activity. Indeed, more than simply an artist observing this formative period in French history, spanning the years 1748–1825, he sought to be a prominent social actor.

The painter's importance was unmatched in his day, for his Europe-wide artistic influence, as well as the high political offices he held in 1793–1794 alongside Robespierre, for which he suffered the consequences as a political exile after the fall of Napoleon.

Exhibition curators:

Sébastien Allard, Senior Heritage Curator, Director of the Department of Paintings, and Côme Fabre, Curator, Department of Paintings, assisted by Aude Gobet, Head of the Department of Paintings Research Centre, Musée du Louvre.

The exhibition design is by Juan-Felipe Alarcón, with graphic design by Philippe Apeloig.

Exhibition Catalogue

Edited by Sébastien Allard. Co-published by Musée du Louvre Éditions and Hazan, 360 pages, 140 illustrations, €49.

The catalogue reflects the exhibition in offering new perspectives on David's role and position, focusing on two essential aspects of his activity: his involvement during the French Revolution; and, after the fall of the First Empire and his exile to Brussels, his confrontation with the new generation – and Ingres, in particular – whose training he had largely overseen.

The publication is divided into two parts. In the first, an essay by exhibition curator Sébastien Allard seeks to shift perceptions of the artist, examining his life as a coherent whole, in contrast to how historians have tended to fragment it according to the different political regimes David has experienced. Sumptuous reproductions, including numerous details, help remove the proverbial dust from the image sometimes held of the painter's work. The second part encompasses an essay by curator Côme Fabre on the connections between David and the Louvre; a biographical account by Aude Gobet, Head of the Department of Paintings Research Centre; and a chronology of major David-related moments, from his death to today, by Morgane Weinling, art historian.