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- Title
The Mysterious Suicide of François Lemoyne.
- Authors
Williams, Hannah
- Abstract
On 4 June 1737, the celebrated artist Francois Lemoyne, first painter to king Louis XX committed suicide by violently stabbing himself to death with his sword. This article offers a forensically inspired art-historical narrative about a crime that took place three centuries ago. Using police records, medical reports, property inventories, eyewitness accounts, and the archives of the Academic Royale, this study pieces together the intriguing tale of Lemoyne's suicide, examining what drove him to such tragic extremes, and resolving the mystery of how he committed his bloody act. But even more fascinating than the story of Lemoyne's death is what the evidence uncovers about the ordinary details of Lemoyne's life, offering glimpses into private spaces, habitual routines, personal relationships, and professional ambitions. Showing how an investigation of Lemoyne's death reveals more than we might expect about the wider art world of eighteenth-century Paris, this article re-evaluates our art-historical aversion to biography. Borrowing methods from historical writing as well as looking for a distinctly art-historical approach, this article makes a case for the potential of microbiographical and object-driven modes of life-writing in social histories of art.
- Subjects
FRANCE; LE Moyne, Francois, 1688-1737; SUICIDE; ARTISTS; FRENCH artists' writings; FORENSIC sciences; HISTORY of Paris, France, 1715-1789; BIOGRAPHY (Literary form)
- Publication
Oxford Art Journal, 2015, Vol 38, Issue 2, p225
- ISSN
0142-6540
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/oxartj/kcv015