Beaufort Jacques-Antoine
(b Paris, 1721; d Reuil, Seine-et-Oise, 25 June
1784).
French painter. He made his public début in 1756 at the newly opened
Marseille Académie, where he was listed as a drawing teacher; since
nothing is known of his early training, and there is no record of
his attempting to enrol at the Académie Royale or to win the Prix de
Rome, it seems likely that he studied outside Paris. He did,
however, exhibit regularly at the Paris Salon from 1767 to 1783, and
he was accepted (agréé) by the Académie Royale in 1766 and received
(reçu) in 1771, submitting the painting on which his fame was almost
entirely to rest, the Oath of Brutus to Avenge Lucretia (exh. Salon
1771; Nevers, Mus. Mun.; three oil sketches in England and France,
priv. cols). This work played a central role in the development of
history painting between the British and French examples of the
1760s and Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii of 1784 (Paris,
Louvre), breaking new ground with its simple, meaningful gestures
and architectural setting, although the picturesque costumes and the
lack of dramatic focus look back to Rococo taste. While owing
something to Gavin Hamilton’s Oath of Brutus of 1762–3 (New Haven,
CT, Yale Cent. Brit. A.), popularized by Domenico Cunego’s engraving
of 1768, Beaufort’s Oath is more virile and direct, emphasizing a
heroic resolve to seek revenge and providing David, who drew
Beaufort’s version in his Versailles sketchbook, with the motif of
three arms and hands outstretched to take the oath.
