(b Paris, 1727; d Paris, 1791). French collector, patron and printmaker. He was the grandson on his mother's side of Louis Boullogne (ii). As a younger son, he was expected to enter the priesthood, but preferring to devote himself to the arts, he took only minor orders, becoming a sub-deacon. In 1750 he travelled to England, returning to France via the Netherlands; he brought back with him some Rembrandt etchings, the chiaroscuro effects of which had impressed him. In 1759 he visited Rome and travelled around Italy in company with some students of the Acad?mie de France in Rome. Hugues Taraval accompanied him to Naples; in 1760 he again visited Naples and also Paestum, with Hubert Robert. His association with Jean-Honor? Fragonard also began in Rome. Rosenberg and Brejon have counted 80 red chalk drawings (there were originally more) that Fragonard executed for Saint-Non in Rome, after works by Raphael and Michelangelo, but also after the Baroque artists of the 17th century, such as Carracci, Caravaggio, Rubens and Poussin. Saint-Non and Fragonard stayed in Tivoli, and then together returned to France via the great artistic centres of northern Italy (Siena, Florence, Bologna, Ferrara, Venice, Verona, Parma, Genoa), where Fragonard made further drawings of works of art. Saint-Non translated Fragonard's drawings into prints, mostly in aquatint. His friendship with Fragonard was further commemorated in the superb portraits that Fragonard produced of him (see fig.) and of his brother Louis Richard de la Bret?che. Both portraits, which make up the series of so-called figures de fantaisie, are dated 1769 (Paris, Louvre).

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.