Antoine de Favray

Antoine de Favray
Antoine Favray, Self-portrait
Born	8 September 1706 Bagnolet, France
Died	9 February 1798 Malta
Nationality	French
Movement	Orientalist

Chevalier Antoine de Favray (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃twan də favʁɛ]; 8 September 1706, Bagnolet – 9 February 1798, Malta) was a French painter noted for his portraits of personalities of the Ottoman Empire, as well as paintings of Grand Masters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Life and career

In 1762, Antoine de Favray moved to Constantinople, where he spent nine years. He painted numerous genre scenes of the everyday life in Turkey under Louis XVI, and he also depicted locals and foreign dignitaries. Especially notable are a portrait of French ambassador Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes (1717-1787), who was living in Constantinople between 1754 and 1768, and a portrait of Gravier's wife Annette Duvivier de Testa (1730-1798). She had previously been married to Testa, a merchand and member of a prominent Genoese family who settled in Pera for several centuries. Favray portrayed both the ambassador and his wife in rich Turkish dress.

See also

• List of Orientalist artists
• Orientalism

Gallery

• 
  French ambassador Charles Gravier de Vergennes in Ottoman dress, painted by Antoine de Favray, 1766, Pera Museum, Istanbul.
• 
  The Mirabita Sisters, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• 
  Antoine de Favray - Portrait of the Countess of Vergennes in Turkish Attire, Pera Museum, Istanbul
• 
  Audience of Charles de Vergennes with Sultan Osman III in 1755.
• 
  Grand Master Philippe Villiers de l'Isle Adam Taking Possession of Mdina
• 
  Antoine de Favray - The Visit of Maltese Ladies