François Gérard

François Gérard was the leading portrait painter of Napoleonic and Restoration France, known as the painter of kings and the king of painters. His portraits are smooth, elegant and flattering, with fine fabrics and a cool, polished finish.

He was born in Rome in 1770 and trained in Paris in the studio of Jacques-Louis David. His Psyche and Amor (1798), now in the Louvre, made his name. He went on to paint Napoleon, Josephine, Talleyrand and much of the European aristocracy, was made a baron in 1809 and became first painter to Louis XVIII and Charles X. He died in Paris in 1837.

Charles X in His Coronation Robes and Caroline Murat and Her Children show his grand official manner.