Pierre-Antoine Demachy
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Pierre-Antoine Demachy (17 September 1723 – 10 September 1807) was a French artist who specialized in painting ruins,
Trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...
architectural decorations and imaginative scenes of Paris.


Biography

Demachy was born in Paris as the son of a carpenter. In 1754, he became a student of the scenographer
Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni Jean-Nicolas Servan, also known as Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni (2 May 1695 – 19 January 1766) was an Italian decorator, architect, scene-painter, firework designer and trompe-l'œil specialist. He was born in Florence, the son of a French ...
and, the following year, was certified as a "Painter of Architecture" by the
Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture The Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (; en, "Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture") was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abol ...
. In 1757, he held his first exhibit at the
Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...
and continued to display his works there until 1802. He began teaching at the Académie soon after. In 1764, his trompe-l'œil paintings for the façade of the new Church of Sainte-Geneviève (now the
Panthéon The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...
) earned him an appointment as the decorator of stage sets for the
Menus-Plaisirs du Roi The Menus-Plaisirs du Roi () was, in the organisation of the French royal household under the Ancien Régime, the department of the Maison du Roi responsible for the "lesser pleasures of the King", which meant in practice that it was in charge of a ...
. Four years later, the Russian Ambassador in Paris presented him with a commission for several tableaux from
Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
. Upon the death of Jean-François Amand, Demachy was assigned his workshop in the
Palais du Louvre The Louvre Palace (french: link=no, Palais du Louvre, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the ...
. His classes were so popular that, in 1777, the
Comte d'Angiviller Charles Claude Flahaut, Count of Angiviller (1730–1809) was the director of the Bâtiments du Roi, a forerunner of a minister of fine arts in charge of the royal building works, under Louis XVI of France, from 1775. Through Flahaut, virtually ...
wrote a letter to the Académie's Director,
Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (6 March 1714 – 15 May 1789) was a French painter, draughtsman and administrator. Life He was a student of Charles-Joseph Natoire at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture and painted a self-portrait in ...
, complaining that Demachy's students were "polluting the corridors" of the Louvre. Ironically, six years later, Pierre asked the Comte to write a letter to Demachy, informing him that he had been granted an annual pension of 500
Livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...
. In 1784, Demachy took up residence on the first floor of the Louvre. The following year, he applied for and received the position of Professor of Perspective, recently left vacant by the death of
Jacques Sébastien Leclerc Jacques Sébastien Leclerc, or Le Clerc, known as Leclerc des Gobelins (c. 1734 – 17 May 1785)Préaud, M. "Leclerc family". Grove Art Online. was a French painter; known for mythological and genre scenes. Biography He was born in Paris to t ...
. He would hold that office, with some interruptions, until his own death in 1807. He apparently weathered the
Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
with no serious consequences. In 1793 and 1794, he was appointed a Deputy to the "Commune Générale des Arts" which temporarily replaced the Académie.INHA : ''Procès-verbaux de la Commune générale des arts...'' Minutes of the Commune's meetings, with introduction and notes by Henry Lapauze
/ref> He dutifully created a work depicting the "Burning of Feudal Titles and the Attributes of Tyranny". His wife, Louise, died in 1799. His son, Gilles-Pierre, a painter of little note, died two years later. Demachy died in Paris on 10 September 1807.


References


Further reading

* Françoise Roussel-Leriche, Marie Pętkowska Le Roux, ''Le témoin méconnu, Pierre-Antoine Demachy'', Musée Lambinet, Magellan & Cie, Paris, 2013


External links


ArtNet: More works by Demachy.

Pierre-Antoine Demachy
@ the Base Joconde
YouTube
''Pierre Antoine Demachy - Peintre urbaniste Parisien du XVIIIème siècle'' (24 minutes) {{DEFAULTSORT:Demachy, Pierre-Antoine 1723 births 1807 deaths 18th-century French painters Painters of architecture Painters of ruins 19th-century French painters