Lot Essay
As a favorite pupil and collaborator of Lemoyne, Nonnotte assisted him in many of his most important, large-scale works, including the ceiling of the Salon d'Hercule at the Palace of Versailles. Although he achieved success initially as a history painter, it is as a portrait painter that he is best known today. He was received into the Académie in 1741 on the basis of his portraits of Sébastien Leclerc and Ulin, and exhibited there regularly until his departure for Lyon in 1754. The present portrait may be the one exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1743.