mheu, Historical Museum of the Urban Environment

The artist

François Bunel was born in Blois around 1552, the son of the painter known as Bunel "The Elder", whose first name was also François. In 1583, he took up a position as painter and manservant to the King of Navarre, who would later become Henri IV. Although Bunel produced portraits of the King before 1583, as seen in a picture of a childhood Henri IV shown in the Versailles Museum and the Procession of the Holy League, belonging to a private collection, not one of his paintings of the King as a man has survived, with the exception of two prints.