François Garnier

Around 1600 - Paris - 1672

Belonging to a family of artist-decorators active in Fontainbleau at the end of the 16th century, François Garnier founded a studio in Paris on the Pont Notre-Dame and specialised in a genre inherited from the Flemish and Dutch tradition: still life. A prosperous art dealer, he associated with the community of painters who worked in the quarter of the Saint-Germain fair, the real Parisian centre of this production and highly prized by art-lovers of the time. By marrying Marie Guilbert in 1620, the widow of the painter Nicolas Moillon, he became the father-in-law of Louise Moillon, another painter of this genre. In all probability, he was her master and through painting, formed a privileged relationship with her, with their respective works mirroring each other and even merging together.

Enamoured of the most humble reality, which he liked to depict with great accuracy, François Garnier put all his talent into portraying everyday things, such as fruit, generally red, with a predilection for plates of wild strawberries or cherries alongside gooseberry branches (Paris, Louvre, signed and dated 1644).

His works stand out through his refusal to use over-luxuriant decorative effects in favour of more sober compositions, plunged into an austere half-light from which an impression of calm and meditation emanates. His predilection ranged from ochre and bright red tones to a search for effects of transparency.