François Gérard
François Pascal Simon Gérard was known across Europe by a single phrase: the painter of kings, the king of painters. Born in Rome on the 4th of May 1770, the son of a French embassy official and an Italian mother, he grew up between two worlds before becoming the portraitist every royal family on the continent wanted. By the time Napoleon ruled France, Gérard stood as court painter to the Emperor himself. When the Bourbons returned to power, he served them too. Fourteen of his portraits hung at a single salon in 1810 alone. His studio drew the famous; his dining room drew them back. What made this man the face behind so many famous faces? And what did it cost him to be that good at something he never quite believed was enough?
At twelve years old, Gérard gained admission to the Pension du Roi in Paris, leaving his Roman birthplace behind. He moved first through the studio of the sculptor Augustin Pajou, then briefly through that of the history painter Nicolas-Guy Brenet, before placing himself under Jacques-Louis David, the dominant force in French neoclassical painting. David's influence would shape every canvas Gérard ever made.
In 1789, Gérard competed for the Prix de Rome, the most prestigious award a young French painter could win. His comrade Girodet took the prize that year. The following year Gérard tried again, but the death of his father interrupted his work and forced him back to Rome with his mother. He returned to Paris in 1791 in a state of extreme poverty, unable to continue his studies without income.
David stepped in at once, putting Gérard to work. One of David's most celebrated portraits, that of Louis-Michel Le Pelletier de Saint-Fargeau, is thought to owe a significant portion of its execution to Gérard's hand. The painting was completed in early 1793, the same year Gérard was named, at David's request, to the revolutionary tribunal. He invariably absented himself from its fatal decisions, a fact the source records without elaboration but which speaks clearly enough on its own.
In 1794, Gérard won first prize in a competition on the subject of the Tenth of August, referring to the storming of the Tuileries Palace in 1792. The victory marked a turning point. Spurred by his friend and rival Girodet's successes at the Salons of 1793 and 1794, Gérard produced Belisaire in 1795, working alongside the miniaturist Jean-Baptiste Isabey, who assisted him with the canvas.
Isabey's generosity extended beyond labor. A portrait Gérard completed of Isabey in 1796 now sits in the Louvre. The money Isabey paid for that portrait and for Belisaire gave Gérard the financial ground to execute his next major work, Psyche et l'Amour, in 1797. Then, in 1799, his portrait of Madame Mere settled the question of his standing. From that moment, he was accepted as one of the foremost portrait painters working in France.
At the Salon of 1808, eight of his portraits appeared. At the Salon of 1810, the number climbed to fourteen. Those figures, as the source notes, represent only a fraction of the portraits he produced each year. All the leading figures of the Empire and the Bourbon Restoration sat for him, as did the most celebrated men and women across Europe.
Madame Germaine de Stael, George Canning, Charles de Talleyrand, and the Duke of Wellington all bore witness to the attraction of Gérard's company. His salon was, by the account of those who attended it, as much a draw as his studio. Whatever brought them through the door first, many returned for the conversation.
The source attributes this partly to what it calls the charm of his manner. Gérard was rich, celebrated, and socially at ease with power. He had moved from poverty and revolutionary Paris to a position at the center of French cultural life, receiving commissions from Napoleon and then from the restored Bourbon kings in succession. This continuity across dramatically different political regimes is itself a measure of how indispensable he had become.
In 1809, Napoleon made him a baron of the Empire. On the 7th of March 1812, he was elected a member of the Institut. He also held the rank of officer of the Légion d'honneur and carried the formal title of first painter to the king under the Bourbons. The honors accumulated while the commissions kept coming.
Portrait painting brought Gérard wealth and fame, but the genre ranked below history painting in the hierarchy that artists of his time accepted. He knew it, and it stung him. His Bataille d'Austerlitz in 1810 showed, in the source's words, a breadth of invention and style that was conspicuous. His L'Entree d'Henri IV a Paris, now at Versailles, appeared in 1817 as an act of homage to Louis XVIII on his return.
These works were not afterthoughts. They represented Gérard's recurring effort to prove himself in the genre he and his contemporaries held in higher regard. He had competed against Girodet, a friend and rival whose salon successes had spurred Gérard forward earlier in his career, and the competition never fully disappeared.
In 1825, Gérard painted works celebrating the coronation of Charles X. In 1830, Charles commissioned him to produce a large history painting showing the Duke of Angoulême bidding farewell to the French Army as it departed Toulon for the conquest of Algeria. The painting was never executed. The July Revolution overtook events too quickly, removing Charles and bringing down the Bourbon dynasty before the canvas could be begun.
The revolution of 1830 deepened a disquiet that had already settled into Gérard's later years. He had watched the rise of Romanticism with what the source calls impotent grief, unable to join a movement whose energies were foreign to him and unwilling to pretend otherwise. He worked on, in the source's phrase, sad and discouraged.
On the 11th of January 1837, three days after a fever began, Gérard died. He had outlived Napoleon, outlived Louis XVIII, and survived into the reign of Louis-Philippe, which represented a France he had not painted and would not.
His portraits are what remain most clearly. The color of his paintings has suffered over time, but his drawings have held. The source singles out his drawings of women as especially remarkable for what it calls virginal simplicity and frankness of expression. His students included Heinrich Christoph Kolbe. The purity of his line, visible in those drawings, is the quality the source identifies as surviving most intact, a fitting remnant for a man whose gifts were always more precise than his ambitions were content to be.
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Common questions
Who was François Gérard and why was he called the painter of kings?
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.
Who trained François Gérard as a painter?
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.
When was François Gérard made a baron and by whom?
Napoleon made Gérard a baron of the Empire in 1809. He was thereafter known formally as Baron Gérard.
What are the most famous works by François 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.
Who attended François Gérard's famous salon in Paris?
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.
When did François Gérard die and what is his lasting legacy?
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.