Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) lived at a time of political and social turmoil. Explore the events of his age in the timeline below.

1816 David and his wife move to Brussels, where they are part of a large exile community. David concentrates on portraits, mythological scenes, and experimental drawings.

1819 David sells The Intervention of the Sabine Women and Léonidas at Thermopylae to the French state, assuring his position as one of France's greatest artists.

Théodore Géricault makes a stir at the Salon with The Raft of the Medusa, which signals the rise of Romanticism.

1821 Napoleon dies at age 52 in exile on St. Helena.

David paints sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte, nieces of the fallen emperor.

1825 Jacques-Louis David dies of heart disease at age 77. His body is buried in Brussels and his heart in Paris.

1830 Monarchy is restored in France. Louis XVIII, nephew of the guillotined Louis XVI, becomes king.