Baron Francois-Pascal-Simon Gerard or simply François, Baron Gérard (born 1770) was a neoclassical painter who used to paint famous European personalities, especially the leading figures of the restoration periods in France and of the French First Empire. He first studied under Augustin Pajou, the sculptor, and later with Jacques-Louis David, the painter whom he became his assistant after 1791. Two years later, he was named a member of the French Revolutionary Tribunal at David’s request, although he was not allowed to take part in its fatal decisions. Gerard was known for the charm of his conversation and manner, as well as for his skill with the brush. He had a way of ingratiating himself with the political faction in power. So he was a favorite of the revolutionaries. Gerard was highly praised by Napoleon I and his men, and he was given the responsibility of executing historical pieces and portraits.
After the fall of Napoleon, Gerard became a court painter to Louis XVIII, and he was made a baron in 1819. Charles X patronized him during whose unstable reign the artist painted the ceiling murals in Paris for the Panthéon. Gérard’s paintings had close relationship with those of David in their sculptural definition of form, cool classicism, highly finished surfaces, and intellectualism. His works, especially the portraits, were and are still considered to be more elegant than those of David. For mythological and historical subjects, he based his style on Neoclassicism but added to it a dreamlike quality. Gerard died in 1837 in Paris, France.
