Jean-Baptiste Regnault was born in Paris in 1754. He began life at sea in a merchant vessel, but at the age of fifteen his talent attracted attention, and he was sent to Italy by M. de Monval under the care of Bardin.

After his return to Paris in 1776, Regnault obtained the Grand Prix, and in 1783 he was elected Academician. His diploma picture, the Education of Achilles by Chiron, is now in the Louvre, as is Christ Taken Down from the Cross, originally executed for the royal chapel at Fontainebleau, and two minor works - the Origin of Painting and Pygmalion Praying Venus to Give Life to His Statue.

Besides various small pictures and allegorical subjects, Regnault was also the author of many large historical paintings, and his school, which reckoned amongst its chief attendants Guérin, Crepin, Lafitte, Blondel, Robert Lefevre and Menjaud, was for a long while the rival in influence of that of David.

The Genius of France Between Liberty and Death

His greatest masterpiece was The Genius of France Between Liberty and Death created in 1795, in the midst of the French Revolution. Regnault died in 1829 Paris at the age of seventy-five years. The Genius of France Between Liberty and Death is current displayed in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany.