Jean Baptiste Santerre

Jean Baptiste Santerre , 1651-1717, French figure and portrait painter. He was known for allegorical portraits and his rococo use of nude figures. He founded a drawing academy for women at Versailles. Among his works are Susanna at the Bath (Louvre) and Adelaide d'Orléans (Versailles).

Santerre, Jean-Baptiste (b Magny-en-Vexin, nr. Paris, 23 Mar. 1658; d Paris, 21 Nov. 1717). French painter. He was mainly a portrait painter, especially of women, but he is now known chiefly for his Susanna at the Bath (1704, Louvre, Paris), a graceful nude that foreshadows the work of Boucher and Fragonard. He caused mild scandal with another religious work, the Ecstasy of St Teresa (1710), which was commissioned for the chapel of the chateau of Versailles (in situ) and was considered by some observers to be too erotic for the context. Late in life he is said to have destroyed certain nude drawings that he considered indecent.