Jean Antoine Laurent

Jean Antoine Laurent was a French painter, portrait miniaturist and a leading exponent of the romanticised troubadour style of painting. After training in Nancy and Paris, he exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon from 1791 onwards and developed a distinctive inlay technique for portrait miniatures, which earned him great acclaim. Supported by Joséphine Bonaparte, Louis XVIII and the Duchess of Berry, Laurent created not only miniatures but also small-format genre paintings and historical scenes. These include the oil painting ‘The Meeting of Eleanor of Guyenne with the Sultan of Iconia’, which demonstrates his preference for literary and medieval-historical subjects and establishes him as a leading exponent of the troubadour style. In 1815, he was appointed the first curator of the museum in Épinal; in 1832, he was awarded the Legion of Honour. His works can be found, among other places, in the Louvre, at Malmaison and in Grenoble.