François Dumont (1751–1831)

• Was a painter of portrait miniatures.

• Dumont was born at Lunéville (Meurthe).

• He was left an orphan when young, with five brothers and sisters to support.

• He was for a while a student under Jean Girardet.

• In 1784 he journeyed to Rome, returning after four years of careful study, and in 1788 was accepted as an Academician and granted an apartment in the Louvre.

• He married Marie-Nicole, the daughter of Antoine Vestier, a miniature painter.
• The couple had two sons, Aristide and Bias, both of whom became painters.
• Dumont was one of the three greatest miniature painters of France, painting portraits of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVIII, and Charles X, and of almost all the important persons of his day.
• He resided most of his life in Paris, where he died on 27 August 1831.
• A younger brother, Tony Dumont, was also a miniature painter, a pupil of his brother.
• Many of Dumont's finest paintings came into the collection of J. P. Morgan, but others are in the Louvre, presented by the heir of Bias Dumont.

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