Pierre Joseph Lafontaine

PIERRE JOSEPH LAFONTAINE (Belgium, 1758-1835).
"Interior of cathedral".
Miniature in oil.
Measurements: 7 cm (diameter); 12 x 11,5 cm (frame).

It was in the genre of the interiors of churches where the Belgian painter Pierre Joseph Lafontaine stood out mainly. Born in Courtrai , he initially trained at the academy in that city, where he studied with Jean Douelle (1755-1793), before joining the Académie Royale de Peinture in Paris. Greuze and Denon became his patrons in Paris. He exhibited at the Louvre between 1789 and 1806, presenting eight church interiors and another painting in 1789, eleven paintings in 1791 and two church interiors in 1793, although the French Revolution prevented him from pursuing an official career. He therefore became an art dealer working for French museums, traveling all over Europe in search of paintings, especially the Netherlands, where he acquired more than a hundred paintings at public auctions.

He painted some architectural works, particularly interiors of churches and palaces with figures added by Demarne , Swebach and Taunay , and was greatly influenced by the work of the Neefs and Stenwijck families, which earned him the nickname Lafontaine Peterneefs. His works are now in museums in Avignon, Orleans, Dijon , the Herzogliches Museum in Gotha , Courtrai, Lille, the Carnavalet Museum , the Louvre , in the Museum of Decorative Arts . He died in Paris in 1835.