Francois Gerard, one of the many faithful followers of David, was born May 4, 1770, at Rome, where his father had gone in the service of the ambassador of France.  He went to France in his twelfth year, and at sixteen was enrolled in the school of David.  As a docile pupil he entered the competition for the Roman prize in 1789; but Girodet having obtained the first place, a second prize was awarded, and the next year the death of his father prevented him from finishing his competition picture; so that he is one of the exceptions amongst David’s pupils, inasmuch as he did not obtain the Prix de Rome.  In 1790, however, he accompanied his mother, who was an Italian, to her native country.  But his sojourn there was short, as in 1793 he solicited the influence of David to save him from the general conscription; which was done by naming him a member of the Revolutionary tribunal.  By taking refuge in his studio and feigning illness, he avoided the exercise of his judicial functions; and the storm passing away, he exhibited in 1795 a picture of Belisarius which attracted attention.

[Illustration:  PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.  FROM A PAINTING BY PRUD’HON, IN THE LOUVRE.]

In 1806 Napoleon made him the official portrait painter attached to his court, and ordered the picture of the battle of Austerlitz, finished in 1810.  This and indeed all of Gerard’s pictures are marked by all the defects of David’s methods, and lack the virile quality of his master.  His portraits, however, have many qualities of grace and good taste, and his success in France was somewhat analogous to that of Lawrence in England.  Under the Restoration his vogue continued; in 1819 he was given the title of baron; and, dying in Paris on January 11, 1837, he left as his legacy to the art of his time no less than twenty-eight historical pictures, many of great dimensions, eighty-seven full-length portraits, and over two hundred smaller portraits, representing the principal men and women of his time.  The portraits of the Countess Regnault de Saint-Jean-d’Angely and of the Princess Visconti are both excellent specimens of the work of this estimable painter.

[Illustration:  PRUD’HON.  FROM A PEN DRAWING BY HIMSELF.]

Of the pictures which testify to the industry and talent of Louis-Leopold Boilly, who was born at La Bassee, near Lille, on July 5, 1761, the Louvre possesses but one specimen; namely, the Arrival of a Diligence before the coach-office in Paris.  This is undoubtedly due to the fact that with the preoccupation of the public mind with the events of the time, and the prevailing taste for great historical pictures, Boilly’s art, so sincere and so intimate in character, was underestimated.  It is certainly not due to any lack of industry on the part of the painter.  Even at the age of eleven years he undertook to paint, for a religious fraternity of his native town, two pictures representing the miracles of St. Roch.  These still exist, and they are said to be meritorious.