Bouquet of flowers - Attributed to Jean Baptiste Blain de Fontenay (1653-1715)

Jean Baptiste Blain de Fontenay (1653; 1715) attributed. Bouquet of flowers in a vase around 1700.

Lined canvas, formerly oval 69 cm by 57 cm
Frame of 91 cm by 69 cm

This superb painting offers us a bouquet of flowers in a vase on an overturned capital serving as an entablature. At the foot, two fruits, in the background a red velvet curtain.

Jean-Baptiste Blain de Fontenay (1653; 1715)

Born in Caen in 1653 to Louis Blin, painter, and Jeanne Degron, he joined the studio of Jean Baptiste Monnoyer, of whom he would most certainly be the best student.
In order to apply for the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, he was forced to renounce his faith in 1685. He was received on November 16, 1687 with his still life Vase of flowers and bust of Louis XIV (painting kept in the Louvre Museum).
The same year he married Monnoyer's daughter, Marie Monnoyer. The couple will have 4 children including Jean Baptiste II in 1688 and Jacques in 1698 who will also become painters.
Among his most remarkable works, it is necessary to mention the ornamentation of the castles of Fontainebleau, Versailles, Compiègne and especially that of Marly. Housed in the Louvre and pensioned by Louis XIV, he also produced several cartoons for the Gobelins factory.
Like his master, he devoted himself especially to the painting of fruits and flowers, focusing on the sumptuousness and the theatricality of his compositions embellished with curtains, pieces of goldsmithery and other architectural elements.