Pierre Jean-Baptiste-Marie

A pupil of Nicolas Bertin, he followed the courses of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and painted his self-portrait in 1732. Winner of the Grand Prix for Painting of the Academy in 1734, this success earned him a stay at the Academy of France in Rome as the king’s boarder from 1735 to 1740.
Under the direction of Nicolas Vleughels, then of Jean-François de Troy, back in Paris, he was admitted to the Academy on April 29, 1741, then received on March 31, 1742. Throughout the 1740s, the artist shines in all genres of painting, responding to numerous commissions from amateurs, from the King’s Buildings and the Church. His works presented at the Salons bear witness to this variety: the bambochades are mixed with large religious or historical compositions and mythological works.
Building on the success of his art, he climbed one by one all the levels of the academic hierarchy, he became assistant professor in 1744, was the youngest competitor chosen to participate in the competition organized by Le Normant de Tournehem and Charles Antoine Coypel in 1747 , which earned him to be elected professor in 1748.
In 1752, widely recognized by critics, he was appointed first painter to the Duke of Orleans.
He was a determining influence on the art and artists of his time. He then reserved his talents as a painter for royal commissions that he voluntarily carried out at Choisy, the Petit Trianon and Marly.