Jean-Claude Richard de Saint-Non (1727 – November 25, 1791) was a French

French art

French art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from the geographical area of France...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 and engraver

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

.

Family background and history

His family estate, from which he derives his full title, is The Château de Saint-Nom. It is located in the village of Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche

Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche

Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France.-History:Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche was built around 4 core hamlets near the Forest of Marly...

 in Yvelines

Yvelines

Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The land was purchased by his father, Jean-Pierre Richard

Jean-Pierre Richard

Jean-Pierre Richard, is a French writer and literary critic.- Biography :Jean-Pierre Richard began his advanced studies at the École normale supérieure in the rue d'Ulm in 1941, passed the "agrégation" in literature in 1945, and got his doctoral degree in 1962...

, a wealthy French lord.

Relationships with contemporary artists

Richard, who had an interest in printmaking

Printmaking

Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...

, travelled to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 in 1759 where he met and befriended French artists Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific artists active in the last decades of the Ancien Régime, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings , of which only five...

 and Hubert Robert

Hubert Robert

Hubert Robert , French artist, was born in Paris.His father, Nicolas Robert, was in the service of François-Joseph de Choiseul, marquis de Stainville a leading diplomat from Lorraine...

, both of whom were studying at the French Academy in Rome

French Academy in Rome

The French Academy in Rome is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio in Rome, Italy.-History:...

.

Richard made numerous prints of both Fragonard's and Robert's work, including Robert's Vue prise dans les jardins de Villa Mattei aux environs de Rome (View of the Gardens at the Villa Mattei

Villa Mattei

The Villa Mattei or Villa Celimontana is a villa on the Caelian Hill in Rome, best known for its gardens. Its grounds cover most of the valley between the Aventine Hill and the Caelian.-Location:...

) in 1761.

Fragonard later painted a portrait of Richard (see picture above), which is currently on display at the Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

in France.