ANTOINE VESTIER (1740-1824) Eugene Joseph Stanislas Foullon d'Ecotier (1785) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Oil on canvas (80 x 64 cm) Antoine Vestier was born in Avallon, Burgundy. Very little is known about his early years. By 1760 he had moved to Paris where he became a pupil of the miniaturist Antoine Reverand. …
Category: French Artists
From Rags to Riches
JEAN-MARC NATTIER (1685-1766) Empress Catherine I of Russia (1717) Oil on canvas (142 x 110 cm) The Hermitage, St. Petersburg This is a painting of no exceptional artistic merit. The fact that is here is due to its value as a historical document and to the extraordinary life of the sitter. Born in 1685 …
The Aristocratic Musician
JEAN-MARC NATTIER (1685-1766) Francis Greville, 8th Baron Brooke, later 1st Earl of Warwick (1741) Oil on canvas (137 x 107 cm) Private collection Jean-Marc Nattier is almost unknown to the majority of the English-speaking art lovers, This is a consequence of the narrow-minded attitude towards 18th-century French painting professed by most Anglo-American art historians …
Nicolas de Largilliere
NICOLAS DE LARGILLIERE (1656-1746) Self-portrait (1711) Oil on canvas (80 x 65 cm) Chateau de Versailles Largilliere painted several portraits of himself: in 1699 (Tours, Musee des Beaux-Arts), 1711 (Versailles, Chateau), 1724 (Montpellier, Musee Fabre) and 1729 (Florence, Uffizi). These works expressed both, the mature and ageing man's questioning of his destiny and the famous …
Monsieur Lerambert
ALEXIS-SIMON BELLE (1674-1734) Portrait of Louis Lerambert Oil on canvas (130 x 99 cm) Chateau de Versailles Born into a family of artists Alexis-Simon Belle trained under Francois de Troy. He followed the teaching dispensed by the Royal Academy and won the Prix de Rome in 1700. He did not, however, travel to Italy as …
A View of Versailles
JEAN-BAPTISTE MARTIN (1658-1735) View of the Forecourts of the Chateau de Versailles and the Stables (1688) Oil on canvas (260 x 184 cm) Chateau de Versailles Leading onto the Gallery, the Cool Room at Trianon linked the King's apartments, of which it was part, to those of Mme de Maintenon. The painting over the mantelpiece, …
Portrait of a Portraitist
MARC NATTIER (1642-1705) Portrait of Gilbert de Seve Oil on canvas (117 x 88 cm) Chateau de Versailles We normally associate the surname Nattier with Jean-Marc (1685-1766) the famous portraitist of Louis XV and his court, or even Jean-Baptiste (1678-1726). The fact that their father, Marc, was a portraitist is less well known, especially as …
A Goldsmith
FRENCH SCHOOL Portrait of a Goldsmith Oil on canvas (92 x 76 cm) Chateau de Versailles Despite the extremely high quality of this work, characterized by an uncompromising realism and an execution that reveals the hand of a virtuoso, the identities of both artist and sitter remain a mystery. All the names of the major portraitists …
Le Grand Colbert
CLAUDE LEFEVRE (1632-1674) Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1666) Oil on canvas (138 x 113 cm) Chateau de Versailles Claude Lefevre was the son of the painter Jean Lefevre (1600-1664); he was baptized on 12th September 1632 at the church of Saint Louis de Fontainebleau, his godfather was the painter Claude Hoey (1585-1660) who held the …
A Great Nobleman
FRENCH SCHOOL Portrait of Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke of Mortemart Oil on canvas (182 x 97 cm) Chateau de Versailles The sitter has been identified by comparing this portrait with a drawing in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Gabriel de Rochechuart (1600-75) began his career as a courtier at a very young age, as one of the pages …
Old Masters 