* Bordeaux 1745 -  † 1809

He trained in Paris as a pupil of Vien, a neo-classical artist, who also taught David. Taillasson became a member of the Academy in 1784.

He painted mostly subject pictures based on ancient history and regularly exhibited at the Salon in Paris.

Virgil reading to Augustus and Octavia, (1787) Full title ‘Virgil reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia’ Signed and dated: Taillaon 1787.

Canvas, 147.2 x 166.9 cm

The poet Virgil reads to the Emperor (Caesar Augustus) and his sister Octavia a passage from the Aeneid (Book 6), in praise of Octavia's dead son. She swoons with grief. The subject is from the Life of Virgil by Donatus.

The present picture was exhibited at the Salon in Paris in 1787 as the property of M. Dufresnoy. The National Gallery, London