François-André Vincent

1746–1814, Paris

François-André Vincent, who went on to achieve considerable fame as a painter of historical scenes, was first taught by Joseph-Marie Vien and then studied from 1771 under Charles-Joseph Natoire. As early as 1768 he won the renowned Prix de Rome for his painting of Germanicus Putting Down the Rebellion in his Camp. From 1771 to 1775 Vincent lived and worked as a pensionnaire at the Villa Mancini of the Académie de France in Rome. He regularly displayed his works at the exhibitions staged by the Paris Salon and in 1792 was appointed a professor at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Despite the considerable recognition Vincent enjoyed during his lifetime due to his historical paintings – an area in which he competed successfully with no less than Jacques-Louis David – he is now known predominantly as a highly talented and sensitive portraitist. His corpus of etchings, on the other hand, is of exquisite rarity, as Prosper de Baudicour rightly points out. Nagler, Le Blanc and Baudicour record only two etchings in his hand.