Jean Barbault (1718–1762)

• Was a French painter, etcher and printmaker.
• Jean Barbault was born in Viarmes, France in around 1718.
• He was a student of Jean Restout II in Paris.
• In 1745 he failed to win the Prix de Rome, but travelled to Rome in 1747 at his own expense and survived by undertaking engraving work.
• He was admitted to the French Academy in Rome in 1750.
• He notably executed a series of sketches and paintings of French artists who participated in the Turkish mascarade organized in 1748 to mark the Carnival of the French Academy in Rome.
• For the Carnival, Barbault himself dressed as an Officer of the Sultan's Guards.
• One of his larger works in oil on paper – almost four metres wide – depicts a group of artists taking part in a carnival procession entitled The Four Corners of the World (1751).
• He also made a few engravings, including The Martyrdom of St. Peter, after Subleyras, and The Arrival of Columbus in America, after Solimena.
• He died in Rome in 1762, at the age of 43 leaving a widow and three children.

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