Born in Paris, Gros began to learn to draw at the age of six from his father, Jean-Antoine Gros, who was a miniature painter, and showed himself as a gifted artist. His mother, Pierrette-Madeleine-Cécile Durand, was also a painter.

At the Salon of 1804, Gros debuted his painting Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa. The painting launched his career as a successful painter. It depicts Bonaparte in

Gros was made a member of the Legion of Honour on 22 October 1808 by Napoleon, after the Salon of 1808, where he had exhibited the Battle of Eylau. Gros had many pupils and gained

Gros supported himself in Genoa as a portraitist. He visited Florence, and returned to Genoa where he met Joséphine de Beauharnais. Following her to Milan, Gros was well received by

In 1799, Gros left Genoa and made his way to Paris. In the beginning of 1801, he took up his quarters in the Capucins. His study for the painting of the Battle of Nazareth, now in the Musée d'Arts de Nantes, gained the prize offered in 1802 by the consuls, but the project was not

In 1810, his Madrid and Napoleon at the Pyramids (Versailles) show that Napoleon had deserted him. His Francis I and Charles V, 1812 (Louvre), had considerable success.

• Félix Louis Leullier
• Napoleon legacy and memory