Schnapper, Antoine

Date born:  1933

Place Born:  Paris, France

Date died: 2004

Place died:

Sorbonne professor; scholar of the history of collecting in France and expert on Jacques-Louis David. He studied art history at the École du Louvre under André Chastel (q.v.). He married the sociologist Dominique Aron (b. 1934) in 1958. After receiving his degree in 1959-1960, he accepted a position at the University of Bologna in 1961. He returned to France in 1963 to assist Chastel at Centre national de la recherche scientifique (National Scientific Research Centre, or CNRS) as an assistant professor Schnapper mounted several exhibitions in Rouen Musée des beaux-arts. The first, on Jean Jouvenet, appeared in 1966. His first book, on Louis de Boullogne, was published in 1967. A second Rouen exhibition catalog, written in collaboration with Pierre Rosenberg (q.v.), appeared in 1970. His CNRS research years resulted in a monograph on Jouvenet in 1973. The same year he succeeded Jacques Thuillier (q.v.) as professor at Dijon. In 1978 Schnapper was appointed professeur d'historie de l'art at the Sorbonne, University of Paris. Schnapper submitted a report to Chastel in 1983, urging the formation of and national institute for art history in France. This resulted in the founding of the l'Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA). With Michel Laclotte (q.v.), he was a director of La Revue de l'art, which Chastel had founded. In 1988 he began studying the histories of collecting. He organized the important Louvre exhibition on Jacques-Louis David, "David peintre de la Révolution et de l'Empire," for the 1989 bicentennial of the French Revolution. Together with Thuillier, he collaborated on the catalog for the Claude Vignon exhibition in Tours in 1994.  Schnapper completed the manuscript for his book Le Metier de peintre au Grand Siecle, a study of the lives of painters in the 17th century, when his long struggle with cancer overtook him at age 71.  It was published posthumously.  An exhibition, "Connaisseur et curieux--Dessins francais du Louvre, choisis en hommage a Antoine Schnapper," was held at the Louvre in 2005 to honor his work.

Home Country:  France

Sources: Bougault, Valerie  "L'erudit et le curieux." Connaissance des Arts no. 624 (February 2005): 24; [obituaries:] Goetz, Adrien. L'Oeil no. 562 (October 2004): 14; Breerette, Geneviève. "Antoine Schnapper: Spécialiste de l'art des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles." Le Monde, September 2, 2004; Rosenberg, Pierre. "Antoine Schnapper (1933-2004)." Revue de l'Art 146 (2004):101-102.

Bibliography :Jean Jouvenet, 1644-1717.  Rouen: Musée des beaux-arts, 1966; Tableaux pour le Trianon de marbre 1688-1714.  Paris: La Haye, Mouton, 1967; and Rosenberg, Pierre. Jean Restout (1692-1768). Rouen: Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen, 1970; Jean Jouvenet (1644-1717) et la peinture d’histoire à Paris .  Paris: L. Laget, 1974; David: témoin de son temps.  Fribourg, Switzerland: Office du livre, 1980, English, David.  New York : Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982; Collections et collectionneurs dans la France du XVIIe siècle. 2 vols. Paris : Flammarion, c1988-1994; Le métier de peintre au grand siècle. Paris: Gallimard,  2004.