A leading figure in French neoclassicism, a committed revolutionary and then Napoleon I's first painter, Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) has an exceptional career. A great renovator of ancient classicism in historical painting, this fervent follower of the theories of art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann is the author of a few major works: Le Serment des Horaces (1785) or Le Coronation de Napoléon. (1806–1807). In his time, after the rococo fashion, his refined and severe art embodied the image of modernity!