Neoclassicism/Romanticism (1750-1850) followed the Enlightenment with Voltaire and Rousseau calling for reason and common good to replace the authority of tradition. Artists turned away from the ornate and sensuous Rococo with its aristocratic subjects back to nature and morality expressed by Greuze in his paintings of the common people, and by David in his historical masterpieces inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Revolution. His followers split between Ingres' defense of David, and the others led by Delacroix who turned to Romantic literature for inspiration. Landscape pictures became the most characteristic form. Carot was the first and best. A group of younger artists settled in tiny Barbizon near Fontainebleau and began to paint modern landscape pictures in nature, en plein air (Rousseau, Millet). Their approachable subject matter appealed to the new, more democratic market and was widely collected in America. Below you will find the artists arranged chronologically. For other periods, Art Directory; for posters and fine prints Art by French Artists;  French Architecture.

Neoclassicism and Romanticism 19th-century

General

•  Modernity and Modernism : French... by Frascina

•   Parallel Lines: Printmakers, Painters,... by Bann

Ernest Meissonier 

Self Portrait Giclee Print Meissonier,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Antibes, the Horse Ride, 1868 Giclee Print Meissonier,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805)

 Greuze is best known  for bust-length images of tender young girls. He also left a large collection of drawings and studies in red chalk, pen and wash.

Boy in Red Waistcoat Art Print Greuze,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Young Knitter Asleep Giclee Print Greuze,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Learn more:

•  Jean-Baptiste Greuze : The Laundress... by Bailey
   

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)

He was an unofficial painter to the Republic during the French Revolution. He is perhaps best known for his large canvases of Napoleon during the Empire. 

Napoleon Crossing the St. Bernard Pass, circa 1801 (Detail) Giclee Print David,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Bonaparte Crossing the Great Saint Bernard Pass, 1801 Giclee Print David,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Death of Marat Giclee Print David,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Paris and Helen Giclee Print David,... Buy at AllPosters.com

The Pain of Andromache, 1783 Giclee Print David,... Buy at AllPosters.com

View of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, 1794 Giclee Print David,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Jean-Antoine Houdon (sculptor)

Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson (1767-1824)

Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835)

Theodore Gericault (1791-1824)

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)

Venus Anadyomene Framed Giclee Print Ingres,... Buy at AllPosters.com

The Virgin with the Host Giclee Print Ingres,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Gianciotto Discovers Paolo and Francesca, 1814 Giclee Print Ingres,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Odalisque Art Print Ingres,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Learn more:

• Portraits by Ingres Image of an Epoch

•   Ingres 

Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) 

Nuit de Decembre Art Print Delacroix, Michel Buy at AllPosters.com

Halles Art Print Delacroix, Michel Buy at AllPosters.com

Mariage a Montmartre Art Print Delacroix, Michel Buy at AllPosters.com

Canal Art Print Delacroix, Michel Buy at AllPosters.com

Honore Daumier (1808-1879)

Camile Carot (1796-1875) First and greatest French landscape pictures

Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867) Landscape pictures: Barbizon School

Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875)

Angelus, 1859 Art Print Millet,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Nude Study Giclee Print Millet,... Buy at AllPosters.com

Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) Animals 

Francois Rude (sculptor) (1784-1855)

Antoine Louis Barye (sculptor)

Auguste Preault (sculptor)

Jean Baptiste Carpeaux (sculptor)

Auguste Bartholdi 

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