Jean-Martial Frédou (28 January 1710,

Fontenay-Saint-Père Fontenay-Saint-Père () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Yvelines department A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or c ...

– 26 February 1795,

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

) was a French painter known for his portraits. Born at Fontenay-Saint-Père, Frédou was attached to the Cabinet du Roi housed in the Hôtel de la Surintendance at

, where he was commissioned to render duplicates of official portraits of the French royal family painted by

Jean-Marc Nattier Jean-Marc Nattier (; 17 March 1685 – 7 November 1766) was a French Painting, painter. He was born in Paris, the second son of Marc Nattier (1642–1705), a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois (1655–1703), a miniaturist. He is noted for hi ...

Maurice Quentin de La Tour Maurice Quentin de La Tour (; 5 September 1704 – 17 February 1788) was a French painter who worked primarily with pastels in the Rococo style. Among his most famous subjects were Voltaire, Rousseau, Louis XV and the Madame de Pompadour. Biogra ...

Louis-Michel Van Loo Louis-Michel van Loo (2 March 1707 – 20 March 1771) was a French people, French Painting, painter. Biography He studied under his father, the painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo, at Turin and Rome, and he won a prize at the ''Académie Royale d ...

Alexander Roslin Alexander Roslin (; spelled Alexandre in French, ; 15 July 17185 July 1793) was a Swedish painter who worked in Scania, Bayreuth, Paris, Italy, Warsaw and St. Petersburg, primarily for members of aristocratic families. He combined insightful psyc ...

Joseph Siffred Duplessis Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (22 September 1725 – 1 April 1802) was a French painter known for the clarity and immediacy of his portraits. Early life He was born in Carpentras, near Avignon, into a family with an artistic bent and received hi ...

. In his own commissions he often borrowed elements from the original works of these painters, for he was a deft portraitist himself. Between 1760 and 1762 the dauphine Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, daughter-in-law of

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

commissioned informal portraits of herself and her children, for her own use. These portraits, whether in oil or drawn aux trois crayons, touched with

pastels A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...

, have freshness and life. A modest commission came from the Dauphin and Dauphine in 1757: in 1748 they had earth brought into the little courtyard of their private apartments at the

château de Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines Department of Île-de-France region in France. The palace is owned by the government of F ...

, closed in with trelliswork, to make a little garden; and Frédou was commissioned to paint two perspective panels to enlarge the little space.Fernand Engerand, ''Inventaire des tableaux commandés et achetés par la direction des Bâtiments du Roi'', 1901:176 ''s.v.'' "Frédou". Frédou was never made a member of the

Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture The Académie royale de peinture et de 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 abolished in 1793 during the French Revolution. I ...

, but he was made First Painter to the comte de Provence in 1776 upon the death of

François-Hubert Drouais François-Hubert Drouais (; Paris, 14 December 1727 – Paris, 21 October 1775) was a leading French portrait painter during the latter years of Louis XV's reign. His clientele included the French royal family and nobility, foreign aristocracy, f ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fredou, Jean Martial 18th-century French painters French male painters 1710 births 1795 deaths 18th-century French male artists