inform Musson of prevailing preferences in the Paris art market and Musson would then organise for the making of the pictures that fit with those preferences. Jean-Michel Picart married and became widowed three times. His first wife was Marie Marguillier with whom he had a son in 1636. He married a second time on 15 November 1640 to Jeanne Cholin, who was buried on 15 June 1644. A daughter was born from this union. His last marriage with Marie Richard contracted in 1645 lasted for 35 years and produced four daughters and two sons. The documents regarding his civil status on the occasion of his marriages or those of his relatives give an insight into the life of the artist. Starting from his second marriage, he built strong relationships with the local stonecutters, jewellers and engravers of fine stones. He was the father-in-law of the portraitist Jacques d'Agar, who had studied with the Flemish painter Jacob Ferdinand Voet and later became portrait painter to the court of Denmark. Another daughter married the miniature painter Sylvain Bonnet in 1672. The Flemish painter Philippe de Champaigne and the French flower painter Nicolas Baudesson as well as magistrates and officers appear in various notarial deeds relating to Picart. This confirms the social rise of the artist. In 1651, Picart became a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. Later he was named by king Louis XIV 'Peintre du Roy' (Painter to the King) in 1671, then 'peintre ordinaire du roi' (ordinary painter to the king) from 1679 to 1682. Picart painted still lifes for the king of which at least seven were on display at the Palace of Versailles and another eight at the king's smaller retreat Château de Marly. The artist was active in Paris until his death on 24 November 1682. Work Only a few of Picart's works are dated. A Bouquet of flowers in a vase decorated with gilt bronze (1648, Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon) is a rare signed and dated work. According to Curt Benedict, it was the Still life of flowers in a glass vase of the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole, which allowed the French art historian Michel Faré to attribute a number of works to Picart. Picart's style stayed generally close to the contemporary style of flower painting practised in Antwerp, especially that of Jan van Kessel the