Jean-Baptiste Belin

Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay the Elder built his career as a specialist in flower painting at the court of Louis XIV. Born in Caen in 1653, he trained under Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer, whose daughter he married and whose position as flower painter at the Gobelins manufactory he eventually inherited. When the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 threatened his Protestant faith, he converted to Catholicism rather than leave France, allowing him to continue working for the crown.