Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine born in Rouen in 1751, and trained at the local school of painting and drawing by Jean-Baptiste Dechamps, made frequent trips to Paris from 1779 onwards. Lemoine's eldest daughter Agathe mentioned that her father 'se livra plus particulièrement au genre du portrait en miniature et en grand', and the theatrical world he frequented provided him with a constant stream of well known sitters who rapidly advanced Lemoine's career. In 1779 he produced a watercolour comparable in style to the present drawing of the famous opera singer Duthé which was soon after engraved by Janinet. Lemoine also produced portraits of his fellow artists Madame Vigée-Le Brun (1785) and Fragonard (1798); of actors in their favourite rôles such as Rose Gontier as Perrette in Fanfan et Colas (1796), and intellectuals such as Madame Le Hayer, friend of Madame Boccage. Unlike many other portraitists fatally associated with the court, Lemoine's career was little affected by the Revolution, indeed he produced miniatures of both Mirabeau (1791) and of Montesqieu's children (1793). Lemoine died in 1824, accepted by the new court, leaving a portrait of Monsieur Parent Peintre sur porcelaine du Roi unfinished at his death, see G. Le Breton, Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine Peintre Rouennais (1751-1824), Gazette des Beaux Arts, pp. 25-39