Joseph-Marie Vien

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Joseph-Marie Vien
Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) was a renowned French painter and the final Premier Peintre du Roi, a position he held from 1789 to 1791.

Born in Montpellier, Vien was supported by the Comte de Caylus and began his artistic training early in the studio of Natoire, eventually winning the grand prix in 1745. While in Rome, he dedicated himself to studying nature and refining his style, drawing inspiration from the masterpieces surrounding him. However, his approach was so different from the prevailing tastes that upon his return to Paris, he was admitted to the academy for his painting Daedalus and Icarus (now in the Louvre) only due to the strong protests of François Boucher.

When, in 1776, at the height of his established reputation, he became director of the school of France at Rome, he refused to take Jacques-Louis David on as one of his pupils, stating he was too old to teach a young artist. After his return, five years later, his fortunes were wrecked by the French Revolution, but he undauntedly set to work and at the age of eighty (1796) won the prize in an open government competition. Napoleon Bonaparte acknowledged his merit by making him a senator.

Joseph-Marie Vien died in Paris and was buried in the crypt of the Panthéon. He left behind him many other brilliant pupils, amongst whom were François-André Vincent, Jean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust, Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Joseph-Benoît Suvée, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours, François-Guillaume Ménageot, Jean-Joseph Taillasson, and his wife, Marie-Thérèse Reboul (1728-1805), herself a member of the academy. Their son, Marie Joseph, born in 1761, also became a painter.

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