François Gérard

François Pascal Simon Gérard ( French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa paskal simɔ̃ ʒeʁaʁ], 4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837), 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, he became one of the leading painters of the First French Empire (1804–1815) and the Bourbon Restoration (1815–1830). Court painter to Emperor Napoleon and later First Painter to Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X, Gérard enjoyed immense renown—not only in France, but across Europe. Nicknamed “the painter of kings, the king of painters,” he was indeed the portraitist of choice for every European royal family. His salon, one of the most celebrated of its time, welcomed the era’s most eminent figures.