Dog Rolling On Its Back - Entourage Alexandre-françois Desportes.

Black pencil. Our drawing, which does not fail to recall the art of the great Flemish masters of the genre Jan Fyt, Paul de Vos or Frans Snyders, is the work of a painter of the 18th century French school of the entourage of François Doors.
An illegible signature at the top left.
Dimensions (the sheet): 23 x 31 cm

Alexandre François Desportes (Champigneulle 1661 - Paris 1743) is the son of a rich Ardennes farmer. Barely twelve years old, he was sent to his uncle's in Paris where he began his apprenticeship with the Flemish painter Nicasius Bernaerts, himself a pupil of the animal painter Frans Snyders. Desportes is quickly recognized and he is called to produce paintings to decorate royal residences: Versailles, Marly, Meudon, La Muette,…

Painter of the hunts and of the royal pack, Desportes follows the king during his hunts. Thus Saint-Simon reports “he even usually went hunting at his side, with a small wallet to draw…” His son Claude François (1695-1774) will be his pupil and will write his biography.