Necklines

Twice imprisoned after the fall of Robespierre, French painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) faced an artistic and personal crisis as the political and cultural values he had embraced crumbled in the mid-1790s. This book examines the crucial period of David’s artistic career as he struggled both to 'save his neck' and to recast his identity in the aftermath of the Reign of Terror. Ewa Lajer-Burcharth examines David’s work in the context of the larger cultural and social formations emerging in France and offers a new perspective on his paintings and on French artistic culture at an important moment in its history.