| Jean-Baptiste Santerre | |
|---|---|
Self-portrait of Santerre. |
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| Birth name | Santerre |
| Born | 1651 Magny-en-Vexin |
| Died | 21 November 1717 Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Field | painting |
| Movement | classicism |
Jean-Baptiste Santerre (1650 – November 21, 1717), was a French painter.
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Santerre was born at Magny-en-Vexin, near Pontoise. A pupil of Bon Boullogne, he began his painting career at a portraitist, with a notable work being a portrait of Marie Leszczyńska with the Maison de St Cyr in the background (now at the musée de Versailles). He won a major reputation thanks to his academies. His most notable work[1] is his Susanna Bathing (Louvre), the diploma work executed by him in 1704, when he was received into the Académie (though the version now in the Louvre seems to be a copy by Santerre of the original). Although his religious paintings lacked inspiration, the Susanna contributed to Santerre's fifty-year reputation as a painter of the erotic nude, in which field he was the forerunner to François Boucher (1730–1770) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806). The Susanna and his Portrait of a Lady in Venetian Costume (Louvre) give a good impression of Santerre's taste and of his elaborate, refined and careful method. He died at Paris.