(b London, 1611; d after 1670). English painter and engraver. He came from a Guernsey family and was baptized in London both at the French church, Threadneedle Street, and at St Anne’s, Blackfriars, in 1611. In 1636 he married Judith Hoskins, presumably a relative of the miniature painter John Hoskins (i). Des Granges is recorded in 1628 as the engraver of Raphael’s St George and the Dragon (1506; Washington, DC, N.G.). He was a prolific miniature painter, with a reticent style that shows the influence of Hoskins, whose works he often copied. His use of dark grey or light brown backgrounds was unusual and he frequently signed his works with the initials D.D.G. arranged in a triangle. His earliest dated miniature is of Catherine Manners, Duchess of Buckingham (1639; Windsor Castle, Berks, Royal Col.). In 1640 he made a miniature copy, now at Ham House, Surrey, of Titian’s Allegory of Alfonso d’Avalos, Marchese del Vasto (c. 1532; Paris, Louvre), then in the collection of Charles I. Des Granges took the royalist side during the English Civil War and Commonwealth period; he followed Charles II to Scotland and produced many miniatures of his royal patron. The earlier versions were copied from the portrait (c. 1648; see Murdoch, pl. 7e) by Adriaen Hannemann, but des Granges evolved a novel contribution to the iconography of Charles II in his portraits of the King c. 1651 (e.g. ex-Newdegate col., see Murdoch, pl. 155). In 1671, disabled and unable to support his family, he had to plead for the payment owed for 13 of these Civil War miniatures. He is believed to have died shortly after this.

• Granges, David des
  • works
    • Lace, §2(ii): History and uses, 1630–1699