''Narcissus'' is an oil on canvas painting by French artist

François Lemoyne François Lemoyne or François Le Moine (; 1688 – 4 June 1737) was a French rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which co ...

, created in 1728, from a series of three works on the myth of Narcissus. It is now in the

Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (french: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon) is a municipal museum of fine arts in the French city of Lyon. Located near the Place des Terreaux, it is housed in a former Benedictine convent which was active during the 1 ...

The painter

François Lemoine was born in Paris in 1688 and also died in Paris in 1737 by committing suicide (he stuck a sword in his heart). He is a French Rococo painter from classicism, and was notably the master of the painters François Boucher, Charles-Joseph Natoire and Jean-Jacques Caffieri. He was elected first painter by Louis XV who entrusted him with the renovation of the Salon d'Hercule in Versailles. At age 13, in 1701, he entered the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He studied there under the direction of Louis Galloche and remained there until 1713 despite being excluded from painting classes because of insolence (reinstated after an official apology). Received as a member of the Academy in 1718, he was elected professor there on May 30, 1733. He painted many religious subjects (he was entrusted with the decoration of the ceiling of the Jacobins church as well as that of Saint-Sulpice) but also mythological. Very inspired by the great Italian masters (Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Palma the old, Correggio…) he wished all his life to become their equal.

Sources

*http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/joconde_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=REF&VALUE_1=000PE030508

References

1728 paintings Paintings by François Lemoyne Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon Paintings depicting Greek myths {{18C-painting-stub