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(1) Jean-François Garneray
(b Paris, 1755; d Auteuil, 11 June 1837). Painter. He was one of Jacques-Louis David’s earliest pupils, probably entering his studio in 1782. He worked with David on portrait commissions, most notably on Dr Alphonse Leroy (1783; Montpellier, Mus. Fabre), where he was responsible for the clothing and hands, but inexplicably he (or more likely David) chose a pose that seems to deny the sitter a left hand. He did not make his Salon début until 1791; during the French Revolution he drew and painted many important figures, including Joseph Barra and Charlotte Corday (both untraced; engraving of Barra by Pierre-Michel Alix after Garneray, 1794; Paris, Mus. Carnavalet). Garneray was evidently present at Corday’s trial, as he recorded how she posed impassively when she realized her portrait was being drawn. The portrait of a deputy to the Convention, Jean-Baptiste Milhaud (c. 1794; Paris, Louvre), has also been attributed to Garneray on the basis of his signed and dated miniature copy (1794; Paris, Louvre), although it was previously given to David because of a false inscription; later even Garneray’s authorship was disputed (see 1989 exh. cat.). After the Revolution, Garneray continued his successful portrait practice and also moved into historical genre. Many of his portraits, for example Citizen Ol and his Wife (exh. Salon 1801; Paris, priv. col.), have a Dutch quality, then much in vogue, while his excursions into historical genre indicate both a nostalgia for the ancien régime and some relationship with the Troubadour style (e.g. Diane de Poitiers Asking Francis I to Pardon her Father, 1817; the Duc de Montansier Taking the Young Dauphin, Son of Louis XIV, into a Peasant’s Cottage, 1827; both untraced). Towards the end of his life he also produced numerous paintings of church interiors, again invoking a profound debt to Dutch art.
Part of the Garneray family
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