Pierre Lenfant
French, 1704-1787
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Pierre L'Enfant was an 18th-century French painter whose son, Pierre Charles, designed the basic plan for Washington, D.C.
L'Enfant was born in Anet on August 26, 1704. After studying under Charles Parrocel, he was admitted as an adémicien to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1745. His specialties were battle scenes and landscapes; his most famous of his paintings were those depicting the War of the Austrian Succession: especially a series of panoramas tracing the war in the Low Countries between 1744 and 1748. The Palace of Versailles has four of his paintings, Prise de Menin, Siège de Fribourg, Siège de Tournai, and Siège de Mons. He married Marie Charlotte Luillier. Together, they had Pierre Joseph (1752–1758), firstborn, died aged six, and Pierre Charles (1754–1825), designer of Washington, D.C. (capital city of the United States). He died in the Gobelins district of Paris on June 23, 1787.