François-André Vincent (1746-1816), the son of a painter, won the Rome Prize in 1768, and was admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1777. He was considered the leader of the neoclassical school of painting, and was the major rival of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825). He was named a Professor at the Paris School of Fine Arts in 1792. At first he had royalist leanings, but after the Revolution he was named as one of the first members of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institute of France, which replaced the Royal Academy in 1795.
