Jean-Baptiste Oudry was a French painter, engraver and designer of tapestry. He painted still lives and naturalistic pictures of domestic and exotic animals, often depicting hunt scenes. The artist worked in Rococo style.
Background
Jean-Baptiste Oudry was born on March 17, 1686 in Paris, France. He was a son of Jacques Oudry, a painter and art seller on the Pont Notre-Dame, and Nicole Papillon who came from the family of Jean-Baptiste-Michel Papillon, an engraver.
Jean-Baptiste had two elder brothers.
Education
Jean-Baptiste Oudry began the study of portraiture at the School of Saint-Luc directed by his father. In 1707, Jean-Baptiste became an apprentice of Nicolas de Largillière by whom he had been taught for five years.
The following year, Oudry graduated from the School and entered, along with his two brothers, Académie de Saint-Luc.
Career
Jean-Baptiste Oudry started his career from the position of an assistant professor at his alma mater, Académie de Saint-Luc, in 1714. Three years later, he became a professor there.
One of the first artist’s significant commissions was from the director of the Royal Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory. Oudry had to design the series of tapestries dubbed The Pastoral Amusements, or Les Amusements Champêtres.
This commission was followed by many others. So, in 1727, Jean-Baptiste Oudry created two paintings and some landscapes for the Marquis de Beringhen introduced to him by his friend, Jean-Baptiste Massé. Due to this acquaintance, Oudry received an order from king Louis XV which resulted in his Louis XV hunting a deer in the Forest of Saint-Germain (1730) and brought the artist the great popularity. For the other works made for King who named Oudry the Painter-in-Ordinary of the Royal Hunt, Oudry was given a workshop in the Tuileries and an apartment in the Louvre.
Due to Louis Fagon whose houses Jean-Baptiste Oudry decorated about 1730, the artist became the director of Beauvais tapestry manufactory in 1734 where he successfully worked with his associate Nicolas Besnier. Since then, Oudry focused on tapestry design, and became an inspector at the Gobelins manufactory two years later. Among his projects of this time were the nine Chasses Royales Gobelins series (1733–46) and first woven for the Château de Compiègne.
After, Jean-Baptiste was commissioned four works from Christian Ludwig II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. There were Three Does Watching Two Stags Fighting, A Family of Roe Deer, A Boar Hunt and A Wolf Hunt, all of 1734. The Duke also bought Oudry’s Clara, depicting an Indian rhinoceros.
Despite his tapestry and portrait activity, Oudry produced 275 illustrations for the Fables by Jean de La Fontaine.
Jean-Baptiste Oudry spent the end of his life in Paris working in a big studio with assistants.
Still Life with Hare, Duck, Loaf of Bread, Cheese and Flasks of Wine
Louis XV Hunting Deer in the Saint-Germain Forest
A Hare and a Leg of Lamb
Les Amusements Champêtres: Le cheval fondu (Tapestry)
The White Duck
Nature morte avec oiseux morts et cerises
Demoiselle Crane, Toucan, and Tufted Crane
Missy and Luttine
Still Life with a Violin, a Recorder, Books, a Portfolio of Sheet of Music, Peaches and Grapes on a Table Top
Allegory of Europe
L'hallali du loup
Still Life with Dead Game and Peaches in a Landscape
Allegory of Air
Leopard
Clara the Rhinoceros
Dog Guarding Dead Game
Cassowary
Swan Attacked by a Dog
Chatte et chaton, et Chien et perroquet
Still Life with Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers
Membership
Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture
,
France
1719
Connections
Jean-Baptiste Oudry married his apprentice, Marie-Marguerite Froissé who was a daughter of mirror maker, in 1709. The couple had two children. Their names were Marie Oudry and Jacques-Charles Oudry. The latter followed father’s footsteps and became a painter.
Jean-Baptiste Oudry: 1686-1755
The catalogue of an exhibition at the Kimball Art Museum, Texas, United States on February 26 - June 5, in 1983, and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, United States, from July 15 to September 4 in 1983. 79 paintings are described and illustrated, 24 of them are in color. 115 black and white figures accompany the text.