Empire to Exile: A Jacques Louis' View of Art - Book Report/Review Example

 The world of art has existed for a long time now, basically it is since forever. In the modern world we have paintings and works that are so expensive and jealously guarded. The paintings were done by people who lived hundreds of years back and who we take pleasure in celebrating today. In this paper I will review a book on the great artist Jacques Louis David, and see how the book presents him to the world. Jacques Louis David is a classic brand on his own right. 1748 is the year that he was born and 1825 is the year that he died. He was born a French but at death he had gone to exile in the Netherlands when an empire he served collapsed. Louis is not famously known for politics but he is known for his unique artistry and paintings. He is described as a neoclassical style type of a French painter, but with time he had to be a revolutionary and he used paintings to depict and predict the demise of ancient regime. It is always hard to establish whether he was a political painter or just an inspired painter. Facts reveal that he actually was among of the advocators for French revolution and even a supporter of the much famous napoleon 1. With that simple synopsis on Jacques I now introduce the book empire to exile. This is a book primarily focusing on Jacques Louis David in detail. It brings out and appreciates the dominance of Jacques in early 19th century European art. This publication is known as Jacques Louis David-empire to exile which was formulated in 2005. The book has page acreage of 400 pages, it is a publication of Yale university press in association with other two other institutes. The books purpose is to expose David to the world as he was back in the 19th century. It should be appreciated that Louis is a figure that attracted critic beyond measure after he involved himself in political games and while at it he used paintings as a message medium to create propaganda unrivalled. Main focus point of this book is to narrow down on late works of Louis especially the paintings that attracted critic, and the reason for his arrest, also the reason why he had political affiliations and still the reason on why he had to exile. His works are full of propaganda but in between he managed to draw family and friends creatively. The book has the explanations on Louis life his secrets and a sudden interest in politics. It also harbors his works which have supporting information and literature. The last 25 years which were more vigorous in his life, is what the book aims to devour. It was the books purpose to bring out the legend that is larking with Louis. The book has three main overviews. It has parts on David as a person, David as a painter then parts on David as a political artist and finally parts on David as a revolutionary and political supporter and also his eventual exile. The book has four chapters organized as a journey that Jacques travelled in his life. The book has the following chapters-: I. Art after politics- Jacques had been arrested, before his arrest he was the deputy president in the convention. This was during a regime of Jacobin dictatorship that was ruthless to say the least. Jacques arrest came by due to his affiliations. During those five years he dint practice artistry as much. Only producing two paintings oath of tennis court and the martyr of deputies. He dint like this, hence after the release from prison, he got into a mission to rejuvenate himself and concentrate on art. II. Service to napoleon- historian’s critic David for his support to napoleon 1. Having been a supporter of French revolution under Robespierre. In napoleons regime David almost become the master painter. His entangles with napoleons politics attracted interest in David. In this part of the book, it explains in detail all the activities that Jacques did for napoleon and how he plugged himself into art and politics. III. Consulate and empire portraits and also late drawings of Jacques- this is the section where the book shows off Jacques works, it illustrates on the relevance of the works and the reason behind some of his paintings. It is this works that will show his involvement with the political artistry and also the book seeks to bring out the genius of David and how his works were inspired on insight and creativity. IV. Portraits in exile- after Jacques was involved with napoleon he could feel rebuke among robespierre’s royalist and supporters. Unfortunately napoleon died and his regime came to an abrupt end. David could not stand being in France any more hence he commissioned a journey out of France and he moved to Brussels, Netherlands where he spent his last years. It while at Brussels that he saw it necessary to once again speak the only language that he knew and that is art. He came up with paintings and drawings that were also excellent and had insight and his famous creativity agenda. Jacques Louis David is artist who was good at adapting he lived before and revolution, and he tried to be relevant in both periods. The book puts him as one of the few ex revolutionaries who were present at napoleons. He came close to death that is for sure and after he was released from prison he was very cautious of his actions just in case he was sent to the guillotines. The book terms it as surprising that the national security gentlemen did not order for his demise taking note that he was the president of convention. His early works before politics had a message, the message was strong David saw things that other artists did not. The paintings had some expectation of a coming revolution. The book did put it as a case of a man specializing on political artistry in detail. napoleon commissioned him to depict wars and battles associated with napoleon. Napoleon loved propaganda and scaring through paintings and that is why he loved Jacques. Jacques had an eye and creativity to depict politics in a clever way. Napoleon love for his ruthless regime made him want to justify his actions, and to do that he had to show some form of virtual painting. He even once spent an hour examining Jacques painting about his regime. The book talks of Jacques as a person whose allegiance and decision making was a bizarre. Since he was a revolutionary question is why he supported napoleon who had destroyed achievements made during the revolution. It is either he loved to be in the good books of an empire or his political mind crowded his judgment. Empire to exile puts him as a man who never shied away from direct political involvement. He was aggressive and a patriot beyond. At one time King of Prussia wanted to be his main painter and a master art teacher, but he refused, he could not work for any other empire (pg 295). Jacques was rarely understood and he was unrivalled. The books describes as remaining relevant even after napoleon died. With napoleons death, it meant that he had no support from the empire, but yet he defied the bizarre state of things and managed to remain relevant, producing works that are still mysterious in message (pg 192). How David is able to achieve so much is strange and intriguing while at the same time avoiding being hanged due to his paint propaganda. While in exile at Brussels he never stopped his work. The inventing oneself was as familiar to him as life. He survived jail and two regimes under sheer determination and re invention and also being politically clever. In exile he engaged in interesting activities such as interpretations. He was a genius in hiding messages in paintings, hence it was in his interest to deliberately interpret Greek myths and also interpret other paintings done by similar exiles. The book material is written in much detail, content is vast and it brings in the open all that needs to be known about the great Jacques Louis. At the end of the book the ready is left with a vision of a man who is a politician, an artist good enough for praise and a revolutionary. He did much more for France than critics care to admit and yet lived a controversial life that critics find it easy to admit. In my own view the book is thorough and full of interesting insights, it concentrates on Jacques and all things that affected him. At the end it achieves its goal that is presenting to us Jacques. Work Cited Bordes, Philippe, and Jaques-Louis David. Jacques-louis David: Empire to Exile. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005. Print. Read More