Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was the art world's ultimate political chameleon, a man who painted for kings, revolutionaries, and an emperor with the deftness of a cat landing on its feet. This Neoclassical master didn't just paint history; he was in the thick of it, a friend of Robespierre and a member of the Jacobin club who voted for the execution of Louis XVI. Rumor has it that after his friend and revolutionary leader Marat was assassinated, David not only immortalized him in a famous painting but also orchestrated his elaborate funeral. A less flattering, and perhaps dubious, anecdote claims that when his ally Robespierre was facing the guillotine, David declared, "if you drink hemlock, I shall drink it with you," only to be conveniently struck down by a "stomach pain" that kept him from the fateful appointment. A sword wound from a fencing incident left him with a facial tumor, earning him the cruel nickname "David of the Tumor" and making it difficult for him to speak. But that didn't stop him from becoming the "Robespierre of the brush" and later, Napoleon's First Painter, famously depicting the emperor "calm upon a fiery steed" for his Alps crossing, despite the fact that he actually rode a mule.