NONNOTTE, Donat

French painter. He began his training in his native Besançon with an uncle, Jean Nonnotte. When about 20 years old he moved to Paris, where he studied under François Lemoyne and found an influential patron in the Duc d’Antin, Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi. Nonnotte was thus well positioned for a career as a history painter. His first works included wall and ceiling paintings, which he completed in 1730-32 at the château of Versailles, where he worked as Lemoyne’s assistant, and in the churches of St Sulpice and St Thomas d’Aquin in Paris.

Although Nonnotte achieved success initially as a history painter, it is as a portrait painter that he is best known today. He was received into the Academy on the basis of his portraits of Sébastien Leclerc and Pierre D’Ulin and exhibited there regularly until his departure for Lyon in 1754.

In 1754 he moved to Lyon, where he obtained the title of “official painter” of the town in 1762. He taught many portrait painters, including Jean-François Gilles and François-Hubert Drouais. He died in Lyon in 1785.