René Ménard

Ménard grew up in a profoundly artistic and intellectual milieu. His father, René-Joseph Ménard (1827-1887), painted landscapes but was more known as a writer and art critic who headed the Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Through his father, Ménard met the painters of the Barbizon school. His uncle-chemist, pagan philosopher, and writer Louis Ménard (1822-1901)-was characterized by Théophile Gautier as an Athenian born two thousand years too late. Author of Rêveries d'un païen mystique (1876), Louis Ménard undoubtedly introduced his nephew to classical antiquity. After a two-year apprenticeship...