Antoine-Jean Gros

Antoine-Jean Gros painted Napoleon’s campaigns with colour, movement and emotion that went well beyond the cool Neoclassical style he was trained in. His battle scenes and portraits helped build the Napoleonic legend and opened the way for French Romanticism.

He was born in Paris in 1771 and studied with Jacques-Louis David. His Bonaparte at the Pont d’Arcole (1796) was his first great success, followed by Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa (1804) and Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau (1808), all in the Louvre or Versailles. He was made a baron in 1824 and taught at the École des Beaux-Arts. He died in 1835.

His portraits, such as Christine Boyer, show a quieter, more intimate side.