Georges Rouget

Georges Rouget

Portrait of Georges Rouget,
attributed to David, c. 1800
Birth name Marie-Georges-Louis Rouget
Born 26 August 1783
Paris
Died 9 April 1869
Paris
Nationality French
Field Painting
Training École des beaux-arts de Paris, then studio of David
Movement Neoclassicism
Works Marriage of Napoleon and Marie-Louise,
Portrait of David
Awards Second Prix de Rome (1803), Knight of the Légion d'honneur

Georges Rouget (1781, Paris – 1869, Paris) was a neoclassical French painter.

Life

After studying in the école des beaux-arts, Rouget entered David's studio in 1797 and rapidly became his favourite student. Rouget began his professional career as his master's main assistant until David's exile to Brussels, collaborating with him on the canvases Bonaparte at the Grand-Saint-Bernard, The Coronation of Napoleon (of which he made a copy signed by David), Leonidas at Thermopylae and on one of the three copies of the Portrait of Pope Pius VII. Though winning the second prize in the prix de Rome contest in 1803, he failed three times to win the first prize. He produced many canvases for the First French Empire and the Bonapartes, such as The Marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise in 1811. A minor painter, he spent his whole career producing paintings of great moments in French history for whatever regime was in power at the time. Many of his paintings adorned the musée de Versailles opened by Louis-Philippe in 1837.

Bibliography