Gérard first studied under the sculptor Augustin Pajou and later with the painter Jacques-Louis David (David, Jacques-Louis), whose assistant he became after 1791. In 1793, at David's request, he was named a member of the French Revolutionary Tribunal, although he took no part in its fatal decisions. Known for the charm of his manner and conversation, as well as for his skill with the brush, Gérard was always able to ingratiate himself with the political faction in power. A favourite of the revolutionaries, he also was acclaimed by Napoleon I and his circle, executing portraits (e.g., “Josephine Bonaparte,” 1799; Louvre, Paris) and historical pieces (e.g., “Battle of Austerlitz,” 1808; Versailles). After Napoleon's fall he became court painter to Louis XVIII, who made him a baron in 1819. He was later patronized by Charles X, during whose unstable reign he painted the contrived ceiling murals for the Panthéon in Paris (1830).

A portrait of his friend, the miniaturist J.-B. Isabey, and his daughter (1795; Louvre) and Gérard's famed salon entry “Cupid and Psyche” (1798; Louvre) were among the pictures that established a style that became widely imitated at the turn of the 18th century. Gérard's painting was closely related to David's in its intellectualism, cool classicism, highly finished surfaces, and sculptural definition of form. Gérard's works, especially his portraits, are generally considered to be more elegant than David's.