Etienne Allegrain

1644 – 1736

Painter, part of a French family of artists. Etienne Allegrain was a landscape painter who worked predominantly in the tradition of classical scenes established in the mid-17th century by Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. His brother Jean-Baptiste Allegrain (1644-before 1714) was a sculptor, while his son Gabriel Allegrain (1679-1748) was also a landscape painter, whose works can be distinguished from those of his father only with difficulty. Gabriel's son Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain was a sculptor who was much influenced by his more illustrious contemporary and brother-in-law Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. Etienne was possibly the pupil of Henri Mauperché and in 1676 was admitted (agréé) by the Académie Royale, becoming a full member in 1677 on presentation of his painting The Flight into Egypt (untraced). In 1691 he completed part of a series of paintings of views of the chateau and park of Versailles still in situ at the Grand Trianon (Trianon de Marbre). Jean Cotelle II and Jean-Baptiste Martin I also contributed to this project. Among Allegrain's pictures is the somewhat stiff and mannered La Salle de Conseil, with elegantly elongated figures in a formal garden.

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