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Jacques-Louis David (August 30, 1748 - December 29, 1825) was a highly influential French painter in the Neoclassical style. In the 1780s his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward a classical austerity and severity. David later became an active supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre, and was effectively a dictator of the arts under the French Republic. Imprisoned after Robespierre's fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release, that of Napoleon I. David had a huge number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the 19th century, especially academic Salon painting.
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