Antoine-Jean Gros

Antoine -Jean Gros ( born March 16, 1771 in Paris, † June 26, 1835 at Meudon ) was a French painter of classicism.

Gros is known for his historical paintings, which capture the rise of Napoleon I.. His father, Jean Antoine Gros (1732-1786) was a renowned painter of miniatures and gave his son lessons. From 1785 Gros studied with Jacques -Louis David, from 1787 he attended the École de L' Académie de Peinture. Forced by the death of his father and the French Revolution to earn money, he first painted portraits and mythological scenes. In 1793 he fled to Italy, after he was suspected of royalist intrigues, and lived until 1794 in Genoa and Florence, two years exclusively in Genoa. In 1796 he first met with Napoleon Bonaparte in Milan together, which gave him the order to the painting Napoleon at the Bridge of Arcole, which was developed in two versions in 1796 and 1797.

In 1799 Gros went through Antibes and Marseille back to France and painted from now with great success realistic, the military exploits of Napoleon glorifying battle scenes, next to portraits. From 1811 to 1824 he engaged in the coloring of the Pantheon dome; 1827-1893 he created a ceiling painting for the Louvre.

With his work Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau (1808, Louvre), he won a competition organized by DV Dermont; the painting is now considered Gros ' major work. Another important work of the painter is the given by the king and now held in the National Museum of Versailles painting Louis XVIII. takes leave of his faithful (1817 ) refers. It was Gros ' last big history painting with epic character.

As the successor of David shall Gros as the main representative of the classical school, fought by the Romantics. After depression, he committed suicide in 1835 in a tributary of the Seine suicide.

Swell

• Rudolf Zitler: Propylaea history of art - the art of the 19th century. Propylaea, Berlin.