Short answers, pulled from the story.
François Gérard was a French painter born in Rome on the 4th of May 1770 who served as court painter to Napoleon and later as first painter to Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X. He was nicknamed the painter of kings, the king of painters because every European royal family chose him as their portraitist of choice.
Gérard studied under Jacques-Louis David, the leading neoclassical painter in France, after brief periods in the studios of sculptor Augustin Pajou and history painter Nicolas-Guy Brenet. David later employed Gérard as an assistant, and one of David's most celebrated portraits is thought to owe much to Gérard's hand.
Napoleon made Gérard a baron of the Empire in 1809. He was thereafter known formally as Baron Gérard.
Gérard's best-known works include his 1795 canvas Belisaire, his 1797 Psyche et l'Amour, his 1810 Bataille d'Austerlitz, and his 1817 L'Entree d'Henri IV a Paris, which now hangs at Versailles. His portrait of Jean-Baptiste Isabey from 1796 is held in the Louvre.
Madame Germaine de Stael, George Canning, Charles de Talleyrand, and the Duke of Wellington all bore witness to the attraction of Gérard's salon. It was considered one of the most celebrated gatherings of its era.
Gérard died on the 11th of January 1837 after three days of fever. He is best remembered for his portraits; his drawings in particular are noted for the purity of their line, especially those of women, which the historical record describes as remarkable for their virginal simplicity and frankness of expression.