François Lemoyne

François Lemoyne or François Le Moine (1688 – 4 June 1737) was a French rococo painter. He became First Painter to the King and worked with other artists of the era. However, the excess of work, court intrigues at Versailles, and the death of his wife drove him to madness. He committed suicide in Paris in 1737 by stabbing himself seven times, six months after finishing the ceiling painting "The Apotheosis of Hercules" in the Hercules Room in the Great Apartment of the King. With his death, the fashion of large allegorical ceilings disappeared.

Works
 Louis XV donnant la Paix à l'Europe, Salon de la Paix in Versailles (1727)
 Ceiling of the Salon d'Hercule in Versailles (1736)
 Arch of the Church of Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin in Paris
 Diane chasseresse (Diana as a huntress)
 Les Nymphes
 Narcisse
 He also worked at Saint-Sulpice and at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés

 Gallery 

References

 Cours sur la peinture du XVIIIe, 2006, Université Nancy 2
 Xavier Salmon : François Lemoyne à Versailles, Gourcuff, Paris 2001, 

Category:Artists who committed suicide
Category:French painters
Category:Suicides by blade weapons
Category:1688 births
Category:1737 deaths
Category:18th-century artists