Monnoyer, Baptiste (1634-1699)

French baroque painter. He specialized in the painting of fruit and flowers. He was employed by Charles Le Brun to decorate the palace of Versailles, and was invited to England, where he decorated several mansions.

Monnoyer was trained in the Antwerp by Peter Paul Rubens and Frans Snyders, and under Le Brun played a prominent part in the decoration of the châteaux of Vaux, Versailles, and Marly, and in designing Gobelins tapestries. He specialized not only in garlands of flowers depicted on ornamental vases, but also in still lifes with birds, monkeys, and so on, set in an architectural framework, either as individual pictures or integral parts of a decorative scheme. He etched a collection of his own designs which was published in a folio volume.