Alexandre-François Desportes

See also: Desportes

Alexandre-François Desportes , born in 1661 with Champigneul and died with Paris in 1743, is a painter French which can be regarded as the founder of the animalist Peinture French.

It is formed near Nicasius Bernaerts, raises Frans Snyders installed with Paris.

With this Master, it impregnates Flemish tradition but moderates the violence and the ardor of these compositions Baroque S with the profit of an art more measured. It is received with the Royal Académie of Painting and Sculpture in 1699.

Of 1700 until its death, it carries out very many tables to decorate the royal residences (Versailles, Marly, Meudon, Compiegne and Choisy). Louis XIV, then Louis XV orders the portrait of their favorite dogs to him.

Painter of huntings and the pack royal, Desportes followed the king at the time of his huntings.

Saint-Simon brings back “ that it even usually went to hunting to his sides, with a small wallet to draw on the spot their various attitudes, between which the king chose, and always with taste, those that it preferred with the others. ”

Desportes dies in 1743, leaving important funds of workshop. This one is composed of the studies of animals, plants and landscapes painted according to nature like some drafts of Jan Fyt like those appearing of the fox huntings.

In 1784, the Count d' Angiviller, managing director of the Buildings of the King, acquires of this funds for Sevres so that it serf of models to the painters of the manufacture.

After having been used as Iconographic source during more than one century, the studies were deposited in several institutions. The Museum of hunting and nature in Paris collected a big part of animalist works. The Musée of Louvre has its portrait painted by itself and several of its best tables. A whole room of the International Museum of Hunting with Gien is devoted to him.

See too

List of French painters

External bonds

Alexandre-François Desportes in the base Mona Lisa

Partial source

Random links: