Gros, Antoine Jean (1771-1835)

French painter. He was official painter to Napoleon Bonaparte and created works that anticipate Romanticism. Bonaparte at the Bridge of Arcola 1796 (Louvre, Paris) is typical.

One of the most original pupils of Jacques Louis David, Gros was introduced to Napoleon when stranded in Italy during the events of the Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic regime. Among the works he painted for him were Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau 1808 and The Plague-stricken at Jaffa 1804 (both Louvre). The latter is a key picture in early 19th-century French art, because the dramatic contrasts of its groups of figures inspired Eugène Delacroix and turned artists' attention to Oriental subjects, which were later popular.