Antoine Pesne (1683–1757)   

• Was a French-born court painter of Prussia.
• Born in Paris, Pesne first studied art under his father and uncle.
• From 1704 to 1710 he received a stipend for advanced training at the Académie Royale in Italy.
• In 1710, Pesne was called to Berlin by King Frederick I in Prussia. • The king had seen and liked a painting of a German nobleman Pesne had completed in Venice and wanted Pesne to complete a study of himself.

• Upon the death of the king in 1713, Pesne worked in the courts of Dresden and Dessau, and later visited London and Paris.

• In Paris he was made a full member of the Académie Royale in 1720.

• Pesne was appointed as director of the Berlin Academy of the Arts in 1722 by Frederick William I. 

• In 1746 Pesne received from king Frederick II property and construction material to erect a house at Oberwallstraße 3 in Berlin, where he lived until his death in 1757. 

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