(b Oncy, Essonne, 1729; d Paris, 22 Dec 1778). French painter and draughtsman. The son of a weaver, he studied with a minor painter at Versailles and later established himself in the Rue Saint-Denis, Paris. He painted landscapes inspired by those of Claude Lorrain and also by Dutch 17th-century artists. They are atmospheric and evocative, with light misty skies and delicate perspectives. His Landscape (Valenciennes, Mus. B.-A.) depicts a rural scene bathed in a golden twilight. His paintings are often in pairs or sets illustrating the different times of the day or seasons of the year. A series of 12 Vues des environs de Paris was engraved by Jacques-Philippe Lebas, and it is of a greater topographical accuracy than the paintings, which tend to an accumulation of realistic detail, imaginatively arranged. Lantara exhibited works at the Salon de la Jeunesse in 1771 and 1773, and two landscapes were exhibited posthumously at the Salon de la Correspondance of 1783. Drawings, often of moonlit scenes such as Imaginary View of a Castle beside a River by Moonlight (black chalk, heightened with white, on blue paper; Rouen, Mus. B.-A., 865-5-10), brought him some renown during his lifetime, but he died in a charity hospital. The Musée du Louvre, Paris, has a collection of his sketchbooks.

• Lantara, Simon-Mathurin
  • Pastel, §2: History and use