Baron Francois Pascal Simon Gerard, (b.1770 d,1837) known at Francois Gerard, was a neoclassical painter raised in Rome. Gérard’s became one of Napoleon’s favourite portrait painters and his success continued to the Restoration of the monarchy when Louis XVIII made him a baron in 1819. Gerard studied under the painter Jacques-Louis David, who hired him as an assistant in 1791. Gerard’s style was neoclassical like David's but combined with a dreamlike quality.