François Gérard

France · 1770–1837

François Pascal Simon Gérard, titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was Italian. A student of Jacques-Louis David, Gérard became one of the leading painters of the First French Empire and the Bourbon Restoration (1815–1830). Court painter to Emperor Napoleon and later First Painter to Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X, Gérard enjoyed great renown across Europe. Nicknamed “the painter of kings, the king of painters”, he was the portraitist of choice for many European royal families.