, born at Paris in 1676, the son of an attorney in the office of the
, born at Paris in 1676, the son
of an attorney in the office of the finances, entered into the
regiment of musqueteers in 1696. The weakness of his
constitution, unable to resist the fatigues of the service,
obliged him to lay down his arms and take to his studies.
He was received in 1706 into the academy of inscriptions
and belles-lettres, and would have been of the French
academy, if the public profession he made of atheism had
not determined his exclusion. He was afflicted towards
the latter end of his days with a fistula, which carried him
off the 30th of Nov. 1751, at the age of 75. He was denied the honours of sepulture; being inhumed the day
following without ceremony at three o clock in the morning. M. Parfait the elder, who inherited the works of
Boindin, gave them to the public in 1753, in 2 vols. 12mo.
In the first we have four comedies in prose: and a memoir on his life and writings, composed by himself. This
man, who plumed himself on being a philosopher, here
gives himself, without scruple, all the praises that a dull
panegyrist would have found some difficulty in affording
him. There is also by him a memoir, very circumstantial
and very slanderous, in which he accuses, after a lapse of
forty years, la Motte, Saurin, and Malaffaire a merchant,
of having plotted the stratagem that caused the celebrated
and unhappy Rousseau to be condemned. Boindin, though
an atheist, escaped the punishment due to his arrogance,
because, in the disputes between the Jesuits and their adversaries, he used frequently to declaim in the coffeehouses against the latter. M. de la Place relates, that he
said to a man who thought like him, and who was threatened for his opinions, “They plague you, because you
are a Jansenistic atheist; but they let me alone, because
I am a Molinistic atheist.
” Not that he inclined more to
Molina than to Jansenius; but he fouiul that he should get
more by speaking in behalf of those that were then in
favour.
, a painter, was born at Paris in 1676, where he also died in the month of June 1754.
, a painter, was born at Paris in 1676, where he also died in the month of June 1754. He had for masters in his art Houasse, and afterwards Bon Boullogne. He obtained the grand prize of painting in 1699, and was received member of the academy in 1704. Cases may be considered as one of the first painters of the French school. His drawing is correct, and in the grand style, his compositions bear marks of genius; he excels in draperies, and possesses a knowledge of the chiaroscuro to a very high degree. His strokes are mellow, and his pencil brilliant. There is much freshness in his tints. This famous artist worked with great industry; but his performances are not all of equal beauty. Towards the latter end of his life, the coldness of age and the weakness of his organs, occasioned him to produce pictures which betray the decline of his powers. Some of his works may be seen at Paris, in the church of Notre Dame, in the college of Jesuits, at the house of charity, at the petit St. Antoine, at the chapel of la Jussienne, at the abbey of St. Martin, and particularly at St. Germain-des. Prs, where he has represented the lives of St. Germain and of St. Vincent. A holy family at St. Louis de Versailles, is much admired, and is one of his best productions. Cases mostly excelled in pictures with horses. The king of Prussia has two fine pieces by this painter, which have been compared for their execution with the works of Correggio. The celebrated Le Moine was a scholar of Cases.