The crown of flowers

Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée apprenticed under Carle Vanloo and won the Prix de Rome in 1749, though he stayed for only a year at the Académie de France in Rome in 1754 before returning to Paris. Lagrenée earned entry into the Académie Royale in 1755 with a painting inspired by Guido Reni's Rape of Dejaneira, and was largely responsible, together with Joseph-Marie Vien and Jean-Baptiste Greuze, for leading the French school away from the Rococo style and towards an increasingly classical language in line with that of Reni. He won numerous honors and held many prominent positions during his lifetime, among them director of the St. Petersburg Academy (1760-2), director of the Académie in Rome (1781-5), and Recteur of the Académie Royale (appointed 1786).

Lagrenée painted a wide range of biblical and mythological subjects, though the present composition does not appear to belong to a particular narrative. His technique is smooth and is characterized by refined, sculptural forms. The profile of the nymph at right is typical of his classicizing idiom.