Neoclassical art was produced in Europe and North America from about 1750 through the early 1800s, marked by the emulation of Greco-Roman forms. More than just an antique revival, neoclassicism was linked to contemporary political events.

Neoclassical artists at first sought to replace the sensuality and what they viewed as the triviality of the rococo style with a style that was logical, solemn in tone, and moralizing in character. When revolutionary movements established republics in France and America, the new governments adopted neoclassicism as the style for their official art, by virtue of its association with the democracy of ancient Greece and republican Rome.

Later, as Napoleon rose to power in France, the style was modified to serve his propagandistic needs. With the rise of the romantic movement, a preference for personal expression replaced an art based upon fixed, ideal values.