Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Engraver, Etcher, b. 1634 - d. 1699

(born 1634 Lille, France; died 20 February 1699 London, England) French painter. Also known simply as ‘Baptiste’, Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer is well known for his distinctive style of flower and fruit painting that attracted the patronage of French and English royalty and aristocrats during the seventeenth century. Little is known about Monnoyer’s training, but it is believed he studied in Antwerp where he encountered the works of artists Davidsz de Heem, Fyt, and Hieronymus Galle. He was first commissioned to paint floral works for the private French residence Hotel Lauzun in Anjou. In 1658 he was part of the team that worked under close friend Charles Le Brun to help decorate the royal estates of Vincennes, Chateau de Saint Cloud, and most notably Versailles, where Louis XIV had at least sixty of Monnoyer’s works. In 1665 Monnoyer became a member of the Academy. In 1666 he started working for Gobelin Beauvais tapestry manufactory designing wreaths and borders. In 1679 Monnoyer was made Counsellor at the Academy and in 1690 he moved to England, where he first decorated the Montague House for the first Duke of Montague (where the British Museum now stands). He later worked under the patronage of the Duke of St. Albans, Earl of Carlisle, and Queen Mary. Having a highly productive career throughout his life, Monnoyer remained in England until his death in 1699, but his work continued to remain highly popular into the eighteenth century, reaching a larger audience as French and English engravers copied his works into prints.