François Dubois

Who was François Dubois?

François Dubois was a French Huguenot painter who was born in Amiens. His only surviving work is the best known depiction of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, when French Catholics killed French Protestants in Paris. It is not known whether Dubois himself was present at the event but a close relative, the surgeon Antoine Dubois, died in the slaughter. Dubois fled to Lausanne to escape the persecution of the Huguenots and a fellow refugee, a banker from Lyon, commissioned the painting to commemorate the massacre.

The painting shows two incidents from the massacre frequently seen in other depictions in prints and book illustrations: the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny's body hangs out of a window at the rear to the right. To the left rear, Catherine de' Medici, emerges from the Louvre and inspects a heap of bodies.

Dubois is also known to have painted a picture of the Roman Triumvirate.