Jean-Baptiste Defernex
Encyclopedia
Jean-Baptist Defernex was a French artist best known for his portrait busts, most often of women.
Little is known of his early training, but he started as a modeler at the Sèvres factory
. He was sculptor to the Duc d'Orléans
and worked on gilded lead statue groups of children at the Palais-Royal. He was not a member of the Royal Academy
, but rather that of St. Luke
. He had a school for sculpture and drawing; Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau
studied there.
Defernex received no official commissions, and his art seems to have been regarded as rather unfashionable. His portrait busts have been compared to those of Jean-Baptiste Greuze
and described as "honest, unidealized, quite free from gallant flattery": "All the graces and tender amorous atmosphere that floated about Madame Favart
," the singer and actress who was the subject of a 1762 work, "seem dispelled by his convincingly truthful bust of her."
Other works include:
Little is known of his early training, but he started as a modeler at the Sèvres factory
Manufacture nationale de Sèvres
The manufacture nationale de Sèvres is a Frit porcelain porcelain tendre factory at Sèvres, France. Formerly a royal, then an imperial factory, the facility is now run by the Ministry of Culture.-Brief history:...
. He was sculptor to the Duc d'Orléans
Duc d'Orléans
Duke of Orléans was one of the highest ranking titles of the French peerage and dates back to the 14th century. Known as princes of the blood , the title of Duke of Orléans was exclusive to princes of the nearest collateral line of the royal family; thus they constituted a junior branch of the...
and worked on gilded lead statue groups of children at the Palais-Royal. He was not a member of the Royal Academy
Académie de peinture et de sculpture
The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture , Paris, was founded in 1648, modelled on Italian examples, such as the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. Paris already had the Académie de Saint-Luc, which was a city artist guild like any other Guild of Saint Luke...
, but rather that of St. Luke
Académie de Saint-Luc
The Académie de Saint-Luc was a painters' guild set up in Paris in 1391 by the Provost of Paris, along the lines of the Guilds of Saint Luke in the rest of Europe...
. He had a school for sculpture and drawing; Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau
Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau
Louis-Jacques Durameau was a French painter.-Life:A son of Jacques Durameau and Marie Rocou , he was intended for an engraver by his father and trained in drawing at the studio of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Defernex. He then entered the studio of Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre...
studied there.
Defernex received no official commissions, and his art seems to have been regarded as rather unfashionable. His portrait busts have been compared to those of Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Jean-Baptiste Greuze was a French painter.-Early life:He was born at Tournus, Saône-et-Loire. He is generally said to have formed his own talent; this is, however, true only in the most limited sense, for at an early age his inclinations, though thwarted by his father, were encouraged by a...
and described as "honest, unidealized, quite free from gallant flattery": "All the graces and tender amorous atmosphere that floated about Madame Favart
Marie Favart
Marie-Justine-Benoîte Favart was an opera singer, actress, and dancer, the wife of the dramatist, Charles Simon Favart....
," the singer and actress who was the subject of a 1762 work, "seem dispelled by his convincingly truthful bust of her."
Other works include:
- Distressed Spirit (1768), a marble fragment of a funeral monument that was destroyed during the French RevolutionFrench RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
; - plaster bust of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonGeorges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonGeorges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author.His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier...
(1772); - The Milkmaid (1754/60), an example of his Sèvres porcelainPorcelainPorcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
, modeled after a work created by François BoucherFrançois BoucherFrançois Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
for Madame de PompadourMadame de PompadourJeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
's dairy at Crécy.
External links
- Three works (Distressed Spirit, bust of Madame Favart, The Milkmaid) among the collections of the LouvreLouvreThe Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
.