Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay the Elder
Caen, 1653 – Paris, 1715
A Study of Tulpis
Signed with a monogram ‘F’, lower right
Oil on canvas
H. 46 cm. W. 36,5 cm.
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Monaco
REFERENCE LITERATURE
Coatalem, E. & Thiéblot, F. (2014). La nature morte française au XVIIe siècle. Dijon: Faton, pp. 86-87
Active at the court of Louis XIV, Belin de Fontenay was the pupil of Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer, whose daughter he married and whom he succeeded as a flower painter at the illustrious Gobelins manufactory. He painted floral murals in several of the royal chateaus, including Fontainebleau and Versailles, where he worked on the Escalier de la Reine (the Queen's Staircase), since destroyed. He also collaborated with other painters, providing the floral borders in portrait paintings and tapestry cartoons for Gobelins manufactory from 1687 onwards. Towards the end of his life, the king honoured him by providing him with a pension and lodgings in the Palais du Louvre. One of his sons was named Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay II (1688–1730) and painted in a similar style.
