François-Joseph Navez

François-Joseph Navez (1787–1869) was a Belgian Neoclassical painter, known for his portraits and genre scenes. The son of an alderman, he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels under Pierre Joseph Célestin François, and a prize for history painting in 1812 took him to Paris, where he worked with Jacques-Louis David from 1813 to 1816. He then went to Rome, where he met Ingres, and stayed until 1822. Back in Belgium he opened a studio and began taking pupils; Jean-François Portaels, the best known of his pupils, married his daughter. He was appointed director of the Brussels Academy in 1835, the year he helped found the Royal Monument Commission, and resigned in 1863 because of ill health. He died in Brussels in 1869. Here: The Massacre of the Innocents.