His friend Paul Gauguin (page 39) shared similar artistic aims. A wealthy Parisian stockbroker, Gauguin gave up his business and deserted his family because he felt compelled to paint. After living for a time in Brittany, he went to Tahiti and broke entirely with Impressionism. He formed a style in which his experiences and feelings were symbolized by intense colors and sweeping outlines. His art, which anticipates twentieth-century trends, was incomprehensible to his contemporaries, and he died impoverished in the Marquesas. Paul Cézanne (page 41), too, is a forerunner of the moderns. Born at Aix-en-Provence, this banker’s son followed his school friend Zola to Paris. Although an extremely shy youth he soon married a model and for a time painted and exhibited with the Impressionists. But, constantly rebuffed by critics and even scorned by Zola, who failed to see any promise in his forceful early works, Cézanne withdrew to live in Provence during the 1880’s and perfected his individual style. His methods paved the way for the abstract painting of our own day. In his old age a number of young artists and critics sought him out and he enjoyed a small degree of recognition within his lifetime. His work, together with that of Manet, Monet, Degas, Lautrec, van Gogh, and Gauguin, has become the most popular painting today. Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) _Napoleon in His Study_ _Samuel H. Kress Collection_ Remarkably free from the allegorical pomposity of most official portraits, this picture presents Napoleon I with reserved dignity. The emperor himself approved it and, upon its completion in 1812, complimented David. Dressed in his favorite costume, the uniform of the _chasseur de la garde_ with a general’s epaulettes, Napoleon wears the Legion of Honor and the Order of the Iron Cross, which commemorates his earlier coronation as king of Italy. He seems to have just risen from his desk, on which lies the _Code Napoléon_, the codification of French law which he promulgated. David’s style is at its best in portraiture. Combining realism with a classicist’s respect for human dignity, he shows Napoleon in a characteristic pose but with an air of grandeur. David’s assured touch gives authority to the work by its incisive, strong handling of details. The composition is severely rectilinear; framing the figure, vertical lines descend through the pilaster and table leg at the left and, again, from the clock through Napoleon’s arm and the leg of the chair. Against these, horizontal lines, marked by the book shelves, wall molding, and desk, lend compositional stability. The diagonal lines of the chair are countered by the diagonal arrangement of the map and book on the floor. Before this orderly grid of lines Napoleon’s figure appears subtly animated. [Illustration: Canvas. 80¼ × 49¼ inches Dated 1812]