Painter, born in Paris, France. He studied under his father and Nicolas de Largillière. One of the greatest French painters of hunting scenes, and associated still-life paintings, he was appointed court painter to Louis XV and painter of the royal hunt. He became a designer and later director at the Beauvais tapestry works, where he produced the world-famous illustrations to La Fontaine's Fables in 1734. He also worked for Gobelins from 1736, designing the tapestry The Hunt of Louis XV.
Jean-Baptiste Oudry (17 March 1686, Paris - 30 April 1755, Beauvais) was a French Rococo painter, engraver and tapestry designer.
Oudry was the son of Jacques Oudry, a painter and art dealer in Paris, and of his wife Nicole Papillon, who belonged to the family of the engraver Jean-Baptist-Michel Papillon.
His father was a director of the Académie de St-Luc art school, and Oudry joined. At first, Oudry concentrated on portraiture, and he became a pupil of Nicolas de Largillière.
Oudry became an assistant professor at the Académie de St-Luc in 1714, and professor on 1 July 1717.
After producing mainly portraits, Oudry started to produce still life paintings of fruits or animals, and paintings of religious subjects, such as as a Nativity, Saint Gilles, and the Adoration of the Magi.
Through his friend, Jean-Baptiste Massé, a portrait-painter and miniaturist, Oudry was introduced to the marquis de Beringhem, hereditary master of the royal stables, for whom he painted a pair of paintings in 1727. Through this connection, he was commissioned to produce numerous works for the King, who was passionate about the hunt and apponted Oudry Painter-in-Ordinary of the Royal Hunt, in which capacity he produced portraits of dead game, the day's kill. Hultz, an adviser to the Académie de Peinture, commissioned Oudry to produce a buffet, or still-life combining silver plates and ewers, fruit and game; Oudry was also commissioned to produce a buffet for Louis XV (exhibited in the Salon of 1743), that went to the château de Choisy, the King's favoured hunting residence. Hultz recommended Oudry to Louis Fagon (1680-1744), an intendant des finances and book collector, and Oudry decorated his houses in Vauré and Fontenay-aux-Roses with arabesques, flowers and birds. Fago was charged with reviving the fortunes of the tapestry manufactory of Beauvais, which had flourished under Colbert, and he gave the task to Oudry and his associate, Besnier, in 1734.
He used a camera obscura in an attempt to speed up the process of producing landscapes, but abandoned the attempt when he saw that the perspective and the effects of light and shade did not appear correct.
Although Oudry produced excellent scenes of animals and of hunting, he also painted portraits, histories, landscapes, fruits and flowers;
He turned down offers to work for the Czar and the King of Denmark, preferring to remain in France.
He lost some of his responsibilities when Fagon was replaced by de Trudaine.
His son, Jacques-Charles Oudry, was also a painter.
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