Francois Garnier (ca.1600-1658)

• Was a French painter. 
• He was Louise Moillon's father-in-law.
• He married her mother when she became a widow on 17th August 1620.
• He was described in the marriage contract as "a bourgeois living in Paris", so we can assume that he was quite a rich man.
• He lived in the Ile de la Cité and also sold pictures as well as being a painter.
• In 1627 he bought a booth at the Saint Germain fair in rue Merciere and enlarged it at a later date.
• When his wife died in 1630, he married Denise du Pont.
• François Garnier founded a studio in Paris on the Pont Notre-Dame and specialised in a genre inherited from the Flemish and Dutch tradition: still life.
• A prosperous art dealer, he associated with the community of painters who worked in the quarter of the Saint-Germain fair.
• In all probability, Garnier was Moillon's master and through painting, formed a privileged relationship with her.
• François Garnier put all his talent into portraying everyday things, such as fruit, generally red, with a predilection for plates of wild strawberries or cherries alongside gooseberry branches.

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