Saint-Yves, Pierre (de) (1660–1730), was a French painter of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Biography
Pierre de Saint-Yves was born in the French Ardennes (near
Maubert-Fontaine) on May 3, 1660, within a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
protected by
Marie de Guise
Mary of Guise (french: Marie de Guise; 22 November 1515 – 11 June 1560), also called Mary of Lorraine, was a French noblewoman of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine and one of the most powerful families in France. She ...
. This princess called both young Saint-Yvess and his brother
Charles de Saint-Yves (1667–1733) to
Paris in the early 1670s, as pages and sponsored their formations.
Having received a King's pension, Saint-Yves completed studies with a three-year stay at the
French Academy in Rome before returning to Paris as a painter. On January 28, 1708, Saint-Yves became a member of the
Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, in the category of history painter, and he died in Paris on November 4, 1730.
Saint-Yves is an illustrative example of the transition between 17th-century art careers that were usually introduced by the protection of high nobility sponsors, and 18th-century art circles organized around and in the glory of the King. To that extent, Saint-Yves' membership to the Academy as a history painter constituted the utmost position in the Court system at the time, although this category of French classical painting declined by the end of the century and has been almost totally forgotten since the 19th century.
Thus, most of Saint-Yves' posterity lies in his art cabinet, which was bequeathed to the family of his brother
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
and based the reputable art collection of
Charles Léoffroy de Saint-Yves.
Sources
* ''Nouvelle biographie générale'' (1852–1866), dir. Hoefer, ed. M. Firmin Didot frères p452-453
* Dom Calmet, ''Histoire de la Lorraine'' p115
* Lebrun-Dalbaune, ''Un mot sur Pierre-de Saint-Yves, peintre d'histoire'' (19 mai 1865), Impr. de Dufour-Bouquot, 1873
* L. Vitet, ''L'Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture : étude historique'' (1861), Michel Lévy frères, Paris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Yves, the elder
French artists
Peinture et de Sculpture
1660 births
1730 deaths