François Grenier de Saint-Martin
Born in Paris (France) on 22 July 1793.
Died in Paris (France) on 19 December 1867.
French · French Neoclassicism and Romanticism · history and genre painting · nineteenth-century drawing and lithography.
Known through the signatures F. Grenier and François Grenier, Francisque Martin Grenier, called François Grenier de Saint-Martin, trained in the French academic tradition under Jacques-Louis David and Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. His practice encompassed painting, drawing, watercolour, pastel and lithography, with subjects ranging from history painting and portraiture to scenes of everyday life.
The presentation of Atala mourante at the Salon of 1810 marked the early beginning of his public career. Following historical, military and Napoleonic compositions, Grenier developed a visual language particularly suited to observing daily life: peasants, sailors, hunters, children and popular figures are depicted with narrative clarity and close attention to gesture and costume.
Lithography played an essential part in circulating his inventions. The Musée Carnavalet preserves numerous prints associated with his name, while further works or interpretations of his compositions are documented at the Maison de Victor Hugo, the Rijksmuseum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His monumental painting also attracted official commissions, including works intended for the historical collections at Versailles.
His work combines Neoclassical discipline, Romantic feeling and a taste for anecdotal narrative. Rural scenes, hunting subjects and images of childhood reveal an artist attentive to compositional clarity and to the circulation of imagery through print. With its garden scene of childhood, the lithograph Cousin et cousine presented by Swiss Art Gallery naturally belongs within this corpus.
