Born in France in 1770 to Benigne Charles Fevret and Victoire Marie de Motmans, Saint-Memin was educated at
École Militaire, Paris, graduating in 1785. In 1788 he served in the
French Guards.[1]
During the
French Revolution, Saint-Memin and his family travelled to
Switzerland, and then in 1793 to
New York City. They intended to go to
Saint-Domingue, ”to prevent the sequestration of the lands of his creole mother [However] in New York news of the sad
fate of that colony made them decide to remain where they were. Faced with earning a living, they first tried raising vegetables, but ... this experiment proved inadequate.”[2] Out of necessity, Saint-Memin taught himself to work portraits.
^Frances Sergeant Childs. French Refugee Life in the United States 1790–1800 – An American Chapter of the French Revolution. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins press, 1940; p.39
^Howard Rice. Saint-Memin's portrait of Jefferson. Princeton University Library Chronicle v.20, no.4. 1959
Morgan, John Hill. "The Work of M. Fevret de Saint-Mémin," in the Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, January 1918, Vol. V, No. 1.
Norfleet, Fillmore. Saint-Mémin in Virginia: Portraits and Biographies. Richmond, VA: Dietz Press, 1942.
Miles, Ellen G. “Saint-Mémin in the South 1803–1809.” Southern Quarterly 25, no. 1 (1986): 22–39.
Miles, Ellen G.. “Saint-Mémin’s Portraits of American Indians 1804–1807.” American Art Journal 20, no. 4 (1988): 2–33.
Miles, Ellen G. Saint-Mémin and the Neoclassical Profile Portrait in the America. Washington: National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.
Christopher Rolfe. Saint-Memin, Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de (1770–1852). France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 205.