Une baigneuse

1790–1791

Death of his father

His father, whose affairs the Revolution had ruined, dies; the family grows poor, and Gros has to rely on himself alone and devotes himself wholly to painting. The year of his father's death is given as 1790; other accounts say 1791.

1792

Fails to win the Prix de Rome

Gros enters the competition for the Prix de Rome but is unsuccessful.

1792–1793

Commission for portraits of Convention members

Gros receives a commission for several portraits of members of the Convention, but in 1793, as the revolutionary Terror intensifies, the work is broken off.

1793

Flight from France to Italy

With the portrait commission broken off by the Terror, Gros flees France for Italy with the help of his teacher David. He settles in Genoa and earns his living with miniature portraits.

1793–1794

Alfieri, Fabre and the Countess of Albany

In Italy Gros sketches the masterpieces of the old masters and meets the poet Vittorio Alfieri, the painter François-Xavier Fabre and the Countess of Albany.

1793–1794

From Genoa to Florence

Gros moves from Genoa to Florence, where he goes on earning a little with miniature portraits; in 1794 he will return to Genoa.