(b Paris, 1748; d 1826). French painter. He was a pupil of his exact contemporary Jacques-Louis David, with whose work his own has frequently been confused. Nothing is known of his early training. David did not take on pupils until 1781, and Laneuville exhibited at the Salon de la Jeunesse in the Place Dauphine, Paris, from 1783 to 1789. He specialized in portraiture and during the French Revolution (1789–95) produced a sequence of paintings of deputies of the Convention, including Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac (1792–3; Bremen, Ksthalle), Pierre-François-Joseph Robert and Joseph Delaunay (both exh. Salon 1793; Versailles, Château) and Jules-François Paré (exh. Salon 1795; Paris, Carnavalet). His approach was often similar to that of his master, and the Barère portrait was once attributed to David. Laneuville’s portraits are characterized by monochromatic, neutral backgrounds, with the sitter usually seated, either turning his head as if momentarily disturbed or directly confronting the spectator. A thorough process of psychological probing is evident, and the tension of the image is increased by the highly detailed accessories and the sharp focus of the clothes. Traditionally the ...