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Favanne, Henri(-Antoine) de
(b London, 3 Oct 1668; d Paris, 1752). French painter. His parents were French, resident in England, and his father was Master of the Hunt to James, Duke of York (later James II). Favanne was destined to succeed him, but in 1686 he moved to France instead. His intention was to study under Charles Le Brun, but on discovering that the aging master no longer accepted pupils, he went to René-Antoine Houasse. In 1695 he won the Prix de Rome and left Paris for Rome, where he spent five years. There, according to Cousin de la Contamine, he chose for his models ‘the quiet painters’ (i.e. the classicizing painters of the 16th and 17th centuries), in particular Raphael. Shortly after Favanne’s return from Rome, Jean Bouteroue d’Aubigny, equerry of Marie-Anne de la Trémouille, Princesse des Ursins, took him to Spain to execute copies of pictures in the Spanish royal collections, a task that occupied him for ten years. Approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale in 1701, he was received (reçu) in 1704 with an allegory of the Presentation of Philip V to Spain by France (Versailles, Château). He continued to enjoy the protection of the Princesse des Ursins in France, and in 1715 he executed the painted decoration of her sumptuous château, built by Robert de Cotte, at Chanteloup, near Tours, the major work of his career. Although most of the pictures from Chanteloup were destroyed during the French Revolution, at least two compositions for the chapel survive: an Arrival of the Holy Family into Egypt (Charleville, Mus. B.-A.) and a Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (Saint-Symphorien-les-Tours, nr Tours, convent of La Bretèche); there are also surviving oil sketches for other parts of the decoration (Lille, Mus. B.-A.; Orléans, Mus. B.-A.; Tours, Mus. B.-A.; Paris, Louvre; Detroit, MI, Inst. A.). It is possible that Favanne retained some links with England, for in 1717, according to Cousin de la Contamine, he entered a competition for the decoration of the cupola of St Paul’s Cathedral. In 1724 he collaborated with Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Charles-Antoine Coypel, Louis Galloche, Ernest Christophe, Jean Restout (ii), Pierre-Jacques Cazes and Jean-François de Troy (ii) in the decoration of the Hôtel du Grand Maître at Versailles, for which he produced Rinaldo and Armida (Versailles, Hôtel de Ville). Other representative works of this period are Coriolanus Taking Leave of his Family to Fight against his Country and its pendant, Coriolanus Entreated by his Wife and Mother (c. 1725; Auxerre, Mus. A. & Hist.). Favanne exhibited irregularly at the Salon between 1704 and 1751 (e.g. the Separation of Telemachus and Eucharis and the Nymphs Setting Telemachus’ Ship on Fire, both exh. Salon 1746; both Moscow, Pushkin Mus. F.A.), and he was made rector of the Académie Royale in 1748.
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