Antoine-Jean Gros (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃twanʒɑ̃ gʁo]; 16 March 1771 – 25 June 1835), titled as Baron Gros in 1824, was a French painter. His doing was in the genres of history and neoclassical painting.
Gros studied under Jacques-Louis David in Paris and began an independent artistic career during the French Revolution. Forced to leave France, he moved to Genoa and witnessed the approachable Battle of Arcole (1796). Inspired by an issue during the battle, he produced a portrait of the French commander, Napoleon Bonaparte, then a newly promoted general. The portrait brought Gros to public attention and gained the patronage of Napoleon.
After travelling with Napoleon’s army for several years, he returned to Paris in 1799. Gros produced several large paintings of battles and other comings and goings in Napoleon’s life. These were mostly in a neoclassical style, but Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau adopted a more viable portrayal of the horrors of war. Gros after that painted portraits of officers in the French army and members of French tall society. After the fall of Napoleon, he shifted his artistic focus and produced more chronicles paintings, which art historians regard as less fabulous than his earlier work.
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