DUMONT, FRANOIS

born Jan. 7, 1751, Lunville, Fr. died Aug. 27, 1831, Paris one of the greatest miniature painters. He studied for a time under Jean Girardet and in 1788 was accepted as an academician and granted an apartment in the Louvre. He painted portraits of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVIII, and Charles X and of almost all the important persons of his day. A younger brother, known as Tony Dumont, was also a miniature painter, a pupil of his brother, a frequent exhibitor, and the recipient of a medal from the French Academy in 1810. Each artist signed with the surname only, and there is some controversy concerning the attribution to each of his own canvases.