French painter who learned his first painting techniques in France before moving to Rome in 1754, where he was allowed to attend the Academy of France. During these years of study he came into contact with other prominent personalities of the time, including Giovanni Paolo Pannini and Jean- Honoré Fragonard. With Fragonard he visited Rome and its surroundings, Naples and later also other archeological sites of Campania, drawing a huge number of picturesque views, some of which were later reproduced in the famous Voyage pittoresque of Saint-Non. After a short stay in Venice in 1764, he returned permanently to France the following year, where he continued to paint and draw views in which realism is transformed into a fantastic vision, almost idyllic. In addition to Italian landscapes, he painted scenes of Ermenonville, Marly and Versailles, near Paris, and the south of France, with its Roman monuments and ruins. In 1778 he was appointed designer of the gardens of the king, and designed a new grotto in the gardens of Versailles, as well as an English-style garden for Louis XVI. Between 1780-90 he painted a series of oil sketches of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre as part of a replanning proposal.
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