Nicolas-Guy Brenet, 1728-1792

Nicolas-Guy Brenet was an emblematic painter of the revival of history painting before the French Revolution. He was a student of Charles Antoine Coypel, François Boucher and Carle Vanloo. His brilliant academic career illustrates the social and institutional rise of a man from a modest engraver's background.

After his participation in the cycle of the history of Saint Louis for the chapel of the École militaire in 1773, the success of the Honneurs rendus au connétable Du Guesclin par la Ville de Randon exhibited at the Salon of 1777 (Paris, Musée du Louvre) made him the most sought-after artist for the commissions intended to encourage history painting under the reign of Louis XVI. A recognised teacher, he trained many pupils, including Baron Gérard and Jean-Germain Drouais, but remained without any real artistic posterity and 19th century critics reproached him for embodying the "taste of his time, spread in his paintings".

The discovery of previously unpublished works and new archival documents sheds light in this monograph on the production of a talented painter, a witness to the artistic developments of the late Enlightenment.