LEMOYNE, François

François Lemoyne (or Lemoine), French painter. He was one of the leading decorative artists of the day, continuing the grand tradition of Le Brun but adapting it to the lighter taste of the court of Louis XV, to whom he became official painter in 1736. Much of his work can be seen at Versailles, notably in the SalonGLOSSARYIn the French language of the 18th and 19th centuries it designated an actual exhibition space, as well as the academic art exhibitions staged in the Salon d'Apollon of the Louvre since 1667. From 1737, the exhibitions took place biennially and, after the French Revolution, annually in the Salon Carré of the Louvre in Paris. Towards the end of the 19th century the official Salon jury was dissolved in order to make way for a committee of state-approved artists, i.e. former Salon members, who created the highly influential Société des Artistes Français. d'Hercule. He was a man of wide pictorial culture, learning from Rubens in his use of colour and from Bolognese painters in his clarity and grace of drawing. The easy fluency of his style belies his disturbed personality; he committed suicide a few hours after completing Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy (Wallace Collection, London, 1737).