Jean-Baptiste Santerre

Jean-Baptiste Santerre
Self-portrait of Santerre.
Born	Santerre 23 March 1651 Magny-en-Vexin
Died	21 November 1717 Paris
Nationality	French
Known for	painting
Movement	classicism

Jean-Baptiste Santerre (23 March 1651 – 21 November 1717), was a French painter often associated with Jean-Honoré Fragonard but notable in his own right.

Biography

Santerre was born at Magny-en-Vexin, near Pontoise. A pupil of Bon Boullogne, he began his painting career at a portraitist, with a notable work being a portrait of Marie Leszczyńska with the Maison de St Cyr in the background (now at the musée de Versailles). He won a major reputation thanks to his academies. His most notable work is his Susanna Bathing (Louvre), the diploma work executed by him in 1704, when he was received into the Académie (though the version now in the Louvre seems to be a copy by Santerre of the original). Although his religious paintings lacked inspiration, the Susanna contributed to Santerre's fifty-year reputation as a painter of the erotic nude, in which field he was the forerunner to François Boucher (1730–1770) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806). The Susanna and his Portrait of a Lady in Venetian Costume (Louvre) give a good impression of Santerre's taste and of his elaborate, refined and careful method. He died at Paris.

Paintings

• 
  Philippe d'Orleans, regent of Louis XV
• 
  Philippe d'Orleans, regent, and Marie Madeleine de la Vieuville, Comtesse de Parabère (1693-1755)
• 
  Susanna Bathing
• 
  Jean Racine

• Woman Pulling a Curtain, Paris, Galerie Eric Coatalem
• Two Actresses, St Petersburg, Hermitage Museum
• Susanna Bathing, Louvre
• Portrait of a lady in Venetian costume, known as the Marquise de Moulins-Rochefort Louvre
• Young woman writing a letter, Valenciennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Philippe d'Orléans and his official mistress Marie Madeleine de la Vieuville, comtesse de Parabère (as Adam and Eve)

• Jean-Baptiste Santerre (1651–1717) (self-portrait), Versailles, Musée National du Château et des Trianons
• Marie-Adelaide de Savoie, duchesse de Bourgogne (1685–1712), Versailles, Musée National du Château et des Trianons
• Philippe d'Orleans, regent, et Marie Madeleine de la Vieuville, Comtesse de Parabère (1693–1755), Versailles, Musée National du Château et des Trianons
• Saint Theresa in ecstasy, Versailles, Musée National du Château et des Trianons
• The cook, Le Mans, Musée de Tessé
• Portrait of Nicolas Boileau, Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon
• Young smoker, Musée des beaux-arts de Chambéry
• Mlle. Desmares
• Jean Racine
• Young Woman Wearing a Shawl
• The comtesse de Bersac

Bibliography

• Full catalogue of his works - (in French) Claude Lesné: Jean-Baptiste Santerre, 1651-1717, in the bulletin of the Société de l'histoire de l'art français, 1988.