Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away from Rococo frivolity toward classical austerity, severity, and heightened feeling, which harmonized with the moral climate of the final years of the Ancien Régime. August 30, 1748 – December 29, 1825; died at 77. Alive at the same time as Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Immanuel Kant. Wiki link