FRANCISQUE. Jean François Millet (c. 1644-1680), commonly called Francisque, was born at Antwerp about 1644, and is generally classed amongst the painters of Flanders on account of the accident of his birth. But his father was a Frenchman, a turner in ivory of Dijon, who took service with the prince of Condé, and probably returned after a time to his native country. He remained long enough in Antwerp to apprentice his son to an obscure member of a painter family called Laurent, pupil of Gabriel Franck. With Laurent Franck Francisque left Antwerp for Paris, and there settled after marrying his master’s daughter, He was received a member of the Academy of Painting at Paris in 1673, and after gaining consideration as an imitator of the Poussins he died in 1680, bequeathing his art and some of his talents to one of his sons. Francisque probably knew, as well as imitated, Nicolas Poussin, Gaspar Dughet, and Sebastian Bourdon; and it is doubtless because of his acquaintance with these travelled artists that, being himself without familiarity with the classic lands of Italy and Greece, he was able to imagine and reproduce Italian and Arcadian scenery with considerable grace and effectiveness. It is indeed surprising to observe, even at this day, how skilfully he executed these imaginary subjects, enlivened them with appropriate figures, and shed over them the glow of a warm yet fresh and sparkling tone. Unhappily time has been unkind to Francisque. Twelve of his most important landscapes, which remained in the palace of the Tuileries, were destroyed by fire quite recently; and though many of his pieces may still be found catalogued in Continental and English collections, others in great number remain unknown and unacknowledged. In England there are specimens of Francisque ...