Jacques Louis David

In the short film, The Power of Art: Jacques-Louis David, the narrator Simon Schama has a strong feeling that the famous French painter, Jacques Louis David is more than an innocent artist. His thesis is that David was not innocent in his paintings, he declares that David was a manipulative man, who used his art to gain him power in government and to keep his own life. A prime example of the use of his paintings is portrait of Napoleon titled, Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass, drawn in 1801 for Napoleon. This painting is one of many of his works where he portrays the subject of his paintings to be a noble, robust figure. This painting is specially important because he used paintings of Napoleon like this to appease Napoleon and to gain power under his rule, eventually becoming the official artist for Napoleon. It exemplifies his use of propaganda because it portrays Napoleon as a valiant and righteous figure, willing to lead France to peace. It is meant to be used as a ways of persuading the French people to accept Napoleon as the model human being and great ruler of France.