THE 



LIFE 



F 



Monf. D U F R E S N O Y. 



CHARLES ALPHONSE DU FRESNOY was born at 

 Paris in the year 1611. His father, who was an emi- 

 nent apothecary in that city, intending him for the profefliou 

 of phyfic, gave him as good an education as pomble. During 

 the firft year, which he fpent at the college, he made a very 

 conliderable progrefs in his ftudies : but as foon as he was 

 raifed to the higher clafTes, and began to contract a tafte of 

 poetry, his genius for it opened itfelf, and he carried all the 

 prizes in it, which were propofed to excite the emulation of 

 his fellow-ftudents. His inclination for it was heightened 

 by exercife ; and his earlieft performances mewed,, that he 

 was capable of becoming one of the greateft poets of his age, 

 if his love of painting, which equally pofleffed him, had not 

 divided his time and application. At laft he laid afide all 

 thoughts of the ftudy of phyfic, and declared abfolutely for 

 that of painting, notwithftanding the oppofition of his pa- 

 rents, who, by all kinds of feverity, endeavoured to divert 

 him from purfuing his paffion for that art, the profellion of 

 which they unjuflly confidered in a very contemptible light. 

 But the ftrength of his inclination defeating all the meafures 

 taken to fupprefs it, he took the firft opportunity of cultiva- 

 ting his favourite ftudy. 



He was nineteen or twenty years of age when he began to 

 learn to defign under Francis Perier - 9 and having /pent two 



years 



