Daniel DUMONSTIER
Paris 1574 - Paris 1646
Biography
The son of the portraitist Cosme Dumonstier and nephew of the artists Pierre and Etienne Dumonstier, Daniel Dumonstier worked mainly in Paris and enjoyed a long and successful career as a court painter and valet de chambre to King Henri IV and his successor, Louis XIII. Given lodgings in the Louvre, he made portrait drawings of both male and female members of the French royal family, the aristocracy and nobility, as well as prominent civil servants and many members of the upper classes. Dumonstier was friendly with such writers as François de Malherbe, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc and Gédéon Tallemant des Réaux, who described the artist as well-read and noted that he wrote poetry, spoke Italian and Spanish as well as French, and had a wicked sense of humour. Tallemant des Réaux added that, ‘When he painted people, he let them do whatever they wanted; sometimes he would just say to them, “Turn around”. He made them more beautiful than they were, and for this reason he said: “They are so foolish that they think they are like I make them, and pay me better for it.”’ In 1626 Dumonstier was named peintre et valet de chambre to Gaston d’Orléans, the King’s younger brother. He assembled a fine library of books and manuscripts, part of which was acquired after his death by Cardinal Mazarin.
