Docudrama exploring the mysterious Jacques-Louis David, who dominated the arts in France from the last decadent days of the old monarchy through the Revolution and the rise and fall of Napoleon.

Napoleon has fallen, and David is in exile. His star pupil, Jean-Auguste Ingres, is set to assume the role of first painter of France, but he seems to be a man out of his time

By the middle of the 19th century, Ingres is the grand old man of French painting. His arch-rival Delacroix is still the guiding light of the Romantics.