The doting uncle
Antoine Raspal, great nephew of the Arles sculptor Jean Dedieu, took up painting as a result of his friendship with Guillaume de Barrême de Chateaufort (who knew Catherine, Raspal's sister and Jacques Réattu's mother, and whose patronage ensured him a stream of portraits.) Despite a spell in Paris, his works tended to focus on minutiae and demonstrated a naive inspiration that owed everything to his local environment.
On Guillaume Barrême de Chateaufort's death in 1775, Antoine Raspal kept an eye on his sister and her children, introducing Jacques Réattu to the art of painting.
