- François-Guillaume Ménageot
François-Guillaume Ménageot (1744 – 1816), was a French painter of religious and French historical scenes. A pupil of
François Boucher (1703-1770), he went on to win theGrand Prix de Rome and become a director of theFrench Academy in Rome , an academician and a member of the Institute.Life
He was born in London, the son of Augustin Ménageot (d 1784), an art dealer and adviser to
Denis Diderot . François-Guillaume trained under bothJean-Baptiste-Henri Deshays andFrançois Boucher (1703-1770), in his early works adopting the latter's style and use of warm, light colours. His 1766 "Tomyris Plunging the Head of Cyrus into a Bowl of Blood" (Paris ,Ecole Normale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts ) won thePrix de Rome and a stay at the French Academy in Rome from 1769 to 1774.The Académie Royale in Paris approved François-Guillaume as a history painter in 1777, and he then exhibited "The Farewells of
Polyxena toHecuba " (Chartres ,Musée des Beaux-Arts ) at the Salon, and it received a good reception, as did his entrance piece "Learning Resisting the Passage of Time" (1780; Paris, Ecole Normale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts) and his 1781 "Death of Leonardo da Vinci in the Arms of Francis I" (Amboise, Hôtel de Ville). He and other painters led French painting to return to the Grand Style, with more horizontal compositions, more sculptural drapery, colder colouring and set in ever more monumental architecture. He died inParis .Works
*"Tomyris Plunging the Head of Cyrus into a Bowl of Blood" (1766; Paris, Ecole Normale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts)
*"The Farewells of Polyxena to Hecuba" (1777; Chartres, Musée des Beaux-Arts)
*"Learning Resisting the Passage of Time" (1780; Paris, Ecole Normale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts)
*"Death of Leonardo da Vinci in the Arms of Francis I" (1781; Amboise, Hôtel de Ville)
*"Astyanax Torn from the Arms ofAndromache " (1783, Angers, Musée des Beaux-Arts)
*"Cleopatra Paying her Last Respects to Anthony" (1785; Angers, Musée des Beaux-Arts)
*"The Continence of Scipio" (1787; Zidlochovice Museum)
*"Meleager Implored by his Family" (1789; Paris, Louvre)ources
* [http://www.marquette.edu/haggerty/collections/sebas.html Dr. Jean-Pierre Lafouge on Ménageot's "The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian"]
* [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/m/menageot/biograph.html Biography on WGA]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.