Jean-Claude Richard de Saint-Non (1727 – 25 November 1791) was a French painter and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

. He was born, and also died, in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He is often rather misleadingly known as the "Abbé de Saint-Non"; although intended for the church by his family, he never took more than

minor orders Minor orders are ranks of church ministry. In the Catholic Church, the predominating Latin Church formerly distinguished between the major orders —priest (including bishop), deacon and subdeacon—and four minor orders—acolyte, exorcist, lecto ...

. He was a pioneer of the

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used h ...

technique in

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...

Family background and history

His family estate, from which he derives his full title, is the Château de Saint-Nom. It is located in the village of

Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche () is a wealthy commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. History Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche was built around 4 core hamlets near the Forest of Marly. The village takes its name ...

in Yvelines, France. The land was purchased by his father, Jean-Pierre Richard (died 1747), a wealthy French lord.

Relationships with contemporary artists

Richard, who had an interest in

, travelled to Rome in 1759 where he met and befriended French artists

Jean-Honoré Fragonard Jean-Honoré Fragonard (; 5 April 1732 (birth/baptism certificate) – 22 August 1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific ar ...

and

Hubert Robert Hubert Robert (22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux. ...

, both of whom were studying at the

French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in 1 ...

. Richard made numerous prints of both Fragonard's and Robert's work, including Robert's ''Vue prise dans les jardins de Villa Mattei aux environs de Rome'' (''View of the Gardens at the

Villa Mattei The Villa Celimontana (previously known as Villa Mattei) is a villa on the Caelian Hill in Rome, best known for its gardens. Its grounds cover most of the valley between the Aventine Hill and the Caelian. Location The Villa Celimontana is situa ...

'') in 1761. Fragonard later painted a portrait of Richard (see picture above), which is in

the Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

References

* Ferdinand Hoefer, ''New General Biography'', vol. 7 (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1857), pp. 13–14.

Family background and history

Relationships with contemporary artists

References

See also