Prix de Rome Laureates
Jacques-Louis David
Premier Grand Prix de Rome in painting, 1774
Jacques-Louis David wins the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in painting, 1774, and becomes a resident of the French Academy in Rome.
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) won the Prix de Rome in 1774, on his fourth attempt, with “Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus’ Disease”. He then stayed at the French Academy in Rome — housed at the Palazzo Mancini, before its move to the Villa Medici in 1803.
In Rome, through the antique and the masters, he forged the neoclassical language that would dominate European painting. Back in Paris he triumphed with “The Oath of the Horatii” (1784), then became the painter of the Revolution with “The Death of Marat” (1793).
First Painter to the Emperor under Napoleon, exiled to Brussels after 1816, he is one of the greatest names to come out of the Prix de Rome. His works are now in the Louvre and the world’s great museums; his prize-winning canvas is kept at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Galleries and collections
The prize-winning work
“Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus’ Disease” (1774) — the work that won him the Prix de Rome — Beaux-Arts de Paris · domaine public (Wikimedia Commons)Find out more
