Impressionism

Contrasting: Neoclassicism, Impressionism, and Abstract Expressionism

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries by Jacques Louis David portrays a historical subject that the painter David greatly admired. Neoclassicism, as its name implies, revived many of the conventions of Greek and Roman painting and sculpture, including an obsession with moral and physical ideals. Just as the Greeks and Romans portrayed their gods and goddesses in stone, David lionizes the exalted Emperor in his work. David created his painting during a time of tremendous political turmoil, during the height of the Napoleonic reign. Napoleon is portrayed as a great man, a hero, poised in his study, at work on the great achievements characteristic of his reign.

David intended the portrait to be representative of the whole of Napoleon's character and career: "He [Napoleon] is in his study. . . . The candles flickering and the clock striking four remind...
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