Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825 [par] Richard Cantinelli

Published in 1930 by the renowned art house G. van Oest in Paris and Brussels, this monograph serves as a seminal scholarly examination of Jacques-Louis David, the preeminent painter of the French Neoclassical movement. Richard Cantinelli curated this volume during an era when art historical interest in David was shifting from his role as a political figure of the Revolution to a focus on his technical mastery and influence on nineteenth-century academic painting.

The book is celebrated for its rigorous cataloguing of David’s oeuvre, reflecting the high production standards synonymous with G. van Oest’s publications, which often featured high-quality heliotype plates. Cantinelli’s approach was designed to place David’s work within a structured chronological context, providing an essential resource for researchers and collectors alike who sought to understand the transition from the Rococo style to the stark, didactic precision that defined David’s most famous works like 'The Oath of the Horatii'.