Antoine-Jean Gros

For the 19th-century French diplomat known as Baron Gros, see Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros.

Antoine-Jean Gros
Antoine-Jean Gros at age 20, c. 1791
Born	16 March 1771 (1771-03-16) Paris, France
Died	25 June 1835 (1835-06-26) (aged 64) near Meudon, France
Resting place	Père Lachaise Cemetery
Nationality	French
Education	Collège Mazarin
Known for	Painting

Antoine-Jean Gros (French pronunciation: ​[ɑ̃twanʒɑ̃ gʁo]; 16 March 1771 – 25 June 1835), titled as Baron Gros in 1824, was a French painter. His work was in the genres of history and neoclassical painting.

Gros studied under Jacques-Louis David in Paris and began an independent artistic career during the French Revolution. Forced to leave France, he moved to Genoa and witnessed the nearby Battle of Arcole (1796). Inspired by an event during the battle, he produced a portrait of the French commander, Napoleon Bonaparte, then a newly promoted general. The portrait brought Gros to public attention and gained the patronage of Napoleon.

After travelling with Napoleon's army for several years, he returned to Paris in 1799. Gros produced several large paintings of battles and other events in Napoleon's life. These were mostly in a neoclassical style, but Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau adopted a more realistic portrayal of the horrors of war. Gros also painted portraits of officers in the French army and members of French high society. After the fall of Napoleon, he shifted his artistic focus and produced more history paintings, which art historians regard as less impressive than his earlier work.

Early life and training

Equestrian portrait of prince Boris Yusupov, 1809

Born in Paris, Gros began to learn to draw at the age of six from his father, Jean-Antoine Gros, who was a miniature painter, and showed himself as a gifted artist. His mother, Pierrette-Madeleine-Cécile Durand, was also a painter. Towards the close of 1785, Gros, by his own choice, entered the studio of Jacques-Louis David, which he frequented assiduously, continuing at the same time to follow the classes of the Collège Mazarin.

The death of his father, whose circumstances had been embarrassed by the French Revolution, threw Gros upon his own resources in 1791. He now devoted himself wholly to his profession, and he competed (unsuccessfully) in 1792 for the grand prix. Around this time, however, on the recommendation of the École des Beaux Arts, he was employed on the execution of portraits of the members of the National Convention, but disturbed by the development of the Revolution, Gros left France in 1793 for Italy.

Genoa and Bonaparte

Bonaparte at the pont d'Arcole, 1796

He supported himself at Genoa by the same means, producing a great quantity of miniatures and fixés. He visited Florence, but returned to Genoa where he made the acquaintance of Joséphine de Beauharnais. He followed her to Milan, where he was well received by her husband, Napoleon Bonaparte.

On 15 November 1796, Gros was present with the army near Arcola when Bonaparte planted the French tricolor on the bridge. Gros seized on this incident, and showed by his treatment of it (entitled Bonaparte at the pont d'Arcole) that he had found his vocation. Bonaparte at once gave him the post of inspecteur aux revues, which enabled him to follow the army, and in 1797 nominated him to the commission charged with selecting the spoils which should enrich the Louvre.

Paris

Battle of Abukir, 25 juillet 1799, 1806

In 1799, having escaped from the besieged city of Genoa, Gros made his way to Paris, and in the beginning of 1801 took up his quarters in the Capucins. His esquisse (mock-up), now in the Musée d'Arts de Nantes, for the painting of the Battle of Nazareth gained the prize offered in 1802 by the consuls, but the project was not carried out, owing, it is said, to Napoleon's jealousy of Jean-Andoche Junot, the general in the painting. But Gros was indemnified by a commission to paint Napoleon's own visit to the pest-house of Jaffa, which resulted in Les Pestiférés de Jaffa, now hanging in the Louvre. This was followed in 1806 by Gros's Bataille d’Aboukir, 25 Juillet 1799 (Joachim Murat at the Battle of Abukir) now at Versailles; and in 1808 by his Napoléon sur le champ de bataille d'Eylau, le 9 février 1807 (Napoleon at the battlefield after the Battle of Eylau) now in the Louvre. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "these three subjects – the popular leader facing the pestilence unmoved, challenging the splendid instant of victory, heart-sick with the bitter cost of a hard-won field – gave Gros his chief title to fame."

Britannica further remarks that as long as the military element remained bound up with French national life, Gros received from it a fresh and energetic inspiration which carried him to the very heart of the events which he depicted; but as the army and its general separated from the people, Gros, called on to illustrate episodes representative only of the fulfilment of personal ambition, ceased to find the nourishment necessary to his genius, and the defect of his artistic position became evident. Trained in the sect of the Classicists, he was shackled by their rules, even when by his naturalistic treatment of types, and appeal to picturesque effect in color and tone, he seemed to run counter to them.

Salon of 1804

Napoleon Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa, 1804

Napoleon at the Pyramids in 1798, 1810

Lieutenant Charles Legrand, c. 1810

At the Salon of 1804, Gros debuted his painting Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa. The painting launched his career as a successful painter. It depicts Bonaparte in Jaffa visiting soldiers infected with the bubonic plague. He is portrayed reaching out to one of the sick, unfazed by the illness. According to Jill Morris, Napoleon commissioned Gros to paint "Bonaparte at the Pest House of Jaffa" (1804) to neutralize British propaganda. The propaganda focused on two episodes of the Egyptian campaign (1798-1800). First when he ordered the massacre of Turkish prisoners. Second when he ordered the death by poison of French soldiers suffering from the plague. The painting showed a compassionate Napoleon visiting the sick at the plague hospital. Morris adds that Gros was probably using the disease as a metaphor for the vanity of Napoleon and his First Empire.

While Bonaparte did actually visit the pesthouse, later, as his army prepared to withdraw from Syria, he ordered the poisoning (with laudanum) of about fifty of his plague-infected men. The painting was commissioned as damage control when word spread of his actions. The painting is in the neoclassical style, though it shows elements such as the lighting and a taste for the exotic that are precursors to the upcoming Romantic ideals.

Later life and death

In 1810, his Madrid and Napoleon at the Pyramids (Versailles) show that his star had deserted him. His Francis I and Charles V, 1812 (Louvre), had considerable success, but the decoration of the dome of St. Genevieve (begun in 1811 and completed in 1824) is the only work of Gros's later years which shows his early force and vigour, as well as his skill. The "Departure of Louis XVIII" (Versailles), the Embarkation of Madame d'Angoulême (Bordeaux), the plafond of the Egyptian room in the Louvre, and finally his Hercules and Diomedes, exhibited in 1835, testify only that Gros's efforts – in accordance with the frequent counsels of his old master David – to stem the rising tide of Romanticism only damaged his once brilliant reputation.

Again citing the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, "Exasperated by criticism and the consciousness of failure, Gros sought refuge in the gros[ser] pleasures of life." On 25 June 1835, he was found drowned on the shores of the Seine at Meudon, near Sèvres. From a paper which he had placed in his hat, it became known that "tired of life, and betrayed by last faculties which rendered it bearable, he had resolved to end it."

Renown

Gros was made a member of the Legion of Honour on 22 October 1808 by Napoleon, after the Salon of 1808, at which he had exhibited the Battle of Eylau. The number of Gros's pupils was very great and was considerably augmented when, in 1815, David quit Paris and gave over his own classes to him.

Under the Bourbon Restoration, Gros became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, and a member of the Order of Saint Michael. He was granted the title of baron in 1824 by King Charles X of France.

Gros had also been an inspiration to Eugène Delacroix, especially with his work in lithography. The two both worked in the same time period, and both did portraits of Napoleon. However, at one point, Gros had referred to Delacroix's Chios and Missolonghi as "a massacre of art".

G. Dargenty produced a book titled: Les Artistes Celebres ("Famous Artists"), Le Baron Gros, GILBERT WOOD & Co., London.

M. Delcluze gave a brief notice of his life in Louis David et son temps ("Louis David and his times"), and Julius Meyer's Geschichte der modernen französischen Malerei ("History of Modern French Painting") contains what Britannica cites as an excellent criticism on his works.

Iconography

Image	Title	Date	Dimensions	Collection
File:Antoine Jean Gros, Autoportrait, 1795.jpg	Autoportrait	1795		Palace of Versailles
	Madame Pasteur	1795–1796		The Louvre
	Portrait of Madame Bruyere	1796	79 × 65 cm	Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
	Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole	1796	130 × 94 cm	Palace of Versailles
	The Death of Timophanes	1798	44.4 × 57.6 cm	The Louvre
	Portrait of Christine Boyer	c. 1800	214 × 134 cm	The Louvre
	The Battle of Nazareth	1801	136.1 x 196.4 cm	Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
	Sappho at Leucate	1801	122 × 100 cm	Musée Baron Gérard, Bayeux
	First Consul Bonaparte	1802	205 × 127 cm	Musée de la Légion d'honneur
	Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa	1804	715 × 523 cm	The Louvre
File:Gros - Gérard-Christophe-Michel Duroc, duc de Frioul (1772-1813).jpg	Gérard-Christophe-Michel Duroc, duc de Frioul (1772–1813)	1805	218 × 142 cm	Palace of Versailles
	Battle of Aboukir, 25 July 1799	1806	578 × 968 cm	Palace of Versailles
	Battle of Eylau, 9 February 1807	1807	104.9 × 145.1 cm	The Louvre
	Portrait of the French composer Pierre Zimmermann	1808	118.5 × 91 cm	Palace of Versailles
	Equestrian portrait of Jérôme Bonaparte	c. 1808	321 × 265 cm	Palace of Versailles
	Equestrian portrait of Prince Boris Yusupov	1809	321 × 266 cm	Pushkin Museum
	Battle of the Pyramids	1810	389 × 311 cm	Palace of Versailles
	Napoleon accepts the surrender of Madrid, 4 December 1808	1810	361 × 500 cm	Musée de l'Histoire de France (Versailles)
	The Horse of Mustapha Pasha	c. 1810	89 × 175 cm	Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'archéologie de Besançon
	Portrait of General Claude Legrand	c. 1810	245 × 172 cm	Palace of Versailles
	Portrait of Second Lieutenant Charles Legrand	c. 1810	249 × 162 cm	Los Angeles County Museum of Art
	The Apotheosis of Saint Genevieve	1811–1824		Panthéon de Paris
	François I and Charles V Visiting the Church of Saint-Denis	1812		The Louvre
Error creating thumbnail: File missing	Equestrian portrait of Joachim Murat	1812	89 × 175 cm	Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'archéologie de Besançon
	General Baston de Lariboisière and his son Ferdinand	c. 1815		Musée de l'Armée
	Honoré-Charles Baston de Lariboisière	1815	73 × 59 cm	Private collection
	Departure of Louis XVIII from the Palace of the Tuileries on the Night of 20 March 1815	1817	405 × 525 cm	Palace of Versailles
	Embarkation of Madame d'Angoulême	1819	326 × 504 cm	Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
	Count Jean-Antoine Chaptal	1824		Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
File:Gros Jean Antoine Portrait of Mademoiselle Recamier.jpg	Portrait of Madame Récamier	1825	62.3 × 51.2 cm	Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
File:Musée du Louvre 149.jpg	The Genius of France Giving Life to the Arts and Protecting Humanity	c. 1827		The Louvre
	Hercules and Diomedes	1835	426 × 324 cm	Musée des Augustins
	Portrait of Pierre Daru	19th century	216 × 142 cm	Palace of Versailles

See also

• Félix Louis Leullier
• Napoleon legacy and memory

References

• Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate. (2006). Nineteenth-Century European Art. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 126–127. ISBN 0-13-188643-6

External links

• Antoine-Jean Gros – The J. Paul Getty Museum website
• Paintings by Antoine-Jean Gros
• Histoire de la vie et de la mort du baron Gros, le grand peintre, by J. Tripier Le Franc, 1880; includes an annotated list of the students of Gros and a chronological catalogue of known works.