Simon Mathurin Lantara

Endowed with great facility and real talent, his powers found ready recognition; but he found the constraint of a regular life and the society of educated people unbearably tiresome; and as long as the proceeds of the last sale lasted he lived careless of the future in the company of obscure workmen. Rich amateurs more than once attracted him to their houses, only to find that in ease and high living Lantara could produce nothing. He died in Paris in 1778. His works are prized, but lacking in number; the Louvre has one landscape, Morning, signed and dated 1761. Émile Bernard, Joseph Vernet, and others are said to have added figures to his landscapes and sea-pieces. Engravings after Lantara will be found in the works of Lebas, Piquenot, Duret, Mouchy and others. In 1809 a comedy called Lantara, or the Painter in the Pothouse, was brought out at the Vaudeville with great success. See Émile Bellier de la Chavignerie, Recherches sur le peintre Lantara (Paris, 1852).

Charles François Nivard is recorded as having studied under Simon Mathurin Lantara. The recorded working language is French. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are landscape. Work by Simon Mathurin Lantara is recorded in the collections of Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Grenoble, Bowes Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst and Musée Magnin.

• Name — Simon Mathurin Lantara • Born — 24 March 1729 • Birthplace — Oncy-sur-École, France • Died — 22 December 1778 • Place of death — Paris, France • Occupation — Landscape painter • Notable Works — Morning (1761)