Henri de Favanne

He was born in London on 3 October 1668, and returned to France with his family in 1688.[1] He studied under René Houasse, a pupil of Charles le Brun.[2] He went to Italy in 1693, and was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome in 1693. He then spent ten years in Spain[3] in the service of Madame des Ursins.[2]

In 1714 he returned France, where he was commissioned by Madame des Ursins' secretary Jean d’Aubigny to decorate the newly built Château de Chanteloup.[1][2] There he painted the gallery – decorating it with ten scenes from the life of Philip V – a salon and the chapel. The château no longer exists, but there are three studies for decorations in the gallery in French public collections: The Triumph of Justice in the Louvre, The Kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon Surrender to Philip V in the Musée des Beaux-Arts at Lille and The Battle of Almança or The Battle of Villaviciosa acquired by Musée des Beaux-Arts at Tours in 2007. The museum at Tours also owns two paintings by Favanne which used to hang in the chateau, and a study for a work in the salon.[2]

In Paris, he was elected rector of the Academy. He died on 27 April 1752.[3]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Favanne, Henri de". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). Vol. I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. p. 483.