Jean-Joseph Taillasson was a French history painter and portraitist, draftsman and art critic.

Taillasson was born at Blaye

Blaye

Blaye is a commune and subprefecture in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:Its inhabitants are called Blayais or the Blayaises.-Geography:...

, near Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

. His poem "Le Danger des règles dans les Arts" was noted with approval by the Danish visitor to Paris, Tønnes Christian Bruun-Neergaard, and an elegy "Sur la Nuit", he thought, seemed fit to soften the least sensitive heart. who matured his talent in the Paris ateliers of Joseph-Marie Vien

Joseph-Marie Vien

Joseph-Marie Vien , French painter, was born at Montpellier. He was the last holder of the post of Premier peintre du Roi, serving from 1789 to 1791....

 (from 1764) and Nicolas Bernard Lépicié

Nicolas Bernard Lépicié

Nicolas Bernard Lépicié was a French painter , the son of two reputed engravers at the time, Francois-Bernard and Renee-Elisabeth, was introduced to the artistic and cultural environment by his parents.- Life :...

 and, having won third place in the Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome

The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...

 competition, 1769, spent four years, 1773-77, in Italy. At his return to Paris he set an early example of neoclassicism

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

.

His Observations sur quelques grands peintres, (Paris, Duminil-Lesueur) 1807, offered anti-academic advice somewhat at variance with his own manner; some of the collected observations had previously appeared in the Journal des Arts. He died in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

Selected works

• Self Portrait, Musée du Louvre
• Jeune Homme, vêtu d'une robe, levant les bras, Musée du Louvre
• La Nymphe surprise, Musée des Augustins
  Musée des Augustins
  The Musée des Augustins de Toulouse is a fine arts museum in Toulouse, France which conserves a collection of sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century...
  
  , Toulouse
• Timoléon à qui les Syracusiens amènent des étrangers, Musée Ingres
  Musée Ingres
  The Musée Ingres is located in Montauban, France. It houses a collection of artworks and artifacts related to Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and works by another famous native of Montauban, Antoine Bourdelle....
  
  , Montauban; another version is at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours.
• Un Vieillard, assis, lisant, Musée du Louvre
• Vieillard drapé, debout, vu de dos, Musée du Louvre.
• Claude-Louis, comte de Saint-Germain (1707-1778), 1777 Musée national de Versailles
  Palace of Versailles
  The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
  
  
• La Naissance de Louis XIII, 1782 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Pau
• La Madeleine au désert, 1784 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
  Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
  The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a major museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1860, making it Canada's oldest art institution, it moved to its current location in 1912 thanks to a large donation from businessman James Ross....
  
  
• Ulysse et Néoptolème enlevant à Philoctète les flèches d'Hercule, 1784 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux; this was his morceau de reception at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.
• Sabinus et Eponina découverts par les soldats de Vespasien 1787
• Virgil reading the 'Aeneid' to Augustus and Octavia, 1787 (National Gallery, London)
• Léandre et Héro, 1789 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux
• "Seigneur! Voyez ces yeux" (Cleopatra of Syria is discovered by Rodogune to have poisoned the nuptial cup, a scene from Pierre Corneille
  Pierre Corneille
  Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...
  
  's Rodogune (1644), 1791 Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Tønnes Christian Bruun-Neergaard considered that it had established the painter's reputation, and remarked that it had belonged to Citoyen Godefroy, a well-known amateur, who auction dsaletranspired in 1794.
• Pauline, femme de Sénèque, rappelée à la vie, 1791 Musée du Louvre
• Olympias, 1799
• Andromache, 1800
• Rhadamate et Zénobie, 1806
• Spring (or Flora) leading Cupid back to Nature (Bowes Museum
  Bowes Museum
  The Bowes Museum has a nationally renowned art collection and is situated in the town of Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham, England.The museum contains an El Greco, paintings by Francisco Goya, Canaletto, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher and a sizable collection of decorative art,...
  
  , County Durham, UK)