Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine

Who was Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine?

Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine, also Lemoyne, was a French artist, known primarily for portraiture.

Lemoine was born in Rouen. He declined to follow his father's precedent in becoming a notary, and instead began study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Rouen. Having moved to Paris by 1772, he studied under Jean-Jacques Lagrenée and Maurice-Quentin de la Tour. He was attracted to Parisian theater and music, and early in his career often portrayed actors, singers, and musicians, using pastels and chalk. He also worked in oil, watercolor, and porcelain. In the late 1770s or early 1780s, he may have sketched for fashion plates.

In 1783, Lemoine married the artist Agathe-Françoise Bonvallet. He began his work as a miniaturist in the mid-1780s. His early miniatures are influenced by the "free and painterly technique" of Pierre-Adolphe Hall. In 1785, he painted Louise Benoît Zamor, the page of Madame du Barry and later revolutionary. The portrait is one piece of evidence for Zamor's African origin.

Lemoine invented a perspective easel for use in landscape painting, and another device to help create likenesses in portraiture.