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Jean-Baptiste Santerre was a French painter and draughtsman of the Style Louis XIV, known for his history paintings, portraits, and portrait-like genre subjects. Considerably influenced by Italian masters of the Bolognese school as well as his French contemporaries, Santerre nonetheless made an original contribution in his art, being among the first French painters to bring Netherlandish influences.
After achieving initial success as a portrait painter by the late 1690s, Santerre began to branch out into the fields of genre painting and, in which he combined the fantasy portrait of Northern tradition, as seen in the art of Rembrandt and Gerrit Dou, with the allegorical portrait, then fashionable in France. At the same time, he also painted history paintings and altarpieces of biblical and religious subjects, suffused with a strong erotic character.
Santerre's work brought him a controversial reputation, in light of his association with the French Regency era; it was during the 19th and 20th centuries when it met a broader appreciation. Santerre is regarded as a precursor of the Rococo era painting, as well as of both Neoclassical and Romantic painting, and was said to be an influence on subsequent generations of artists during the said eras.
