Alexander-Francois Desportes painted the Déjeuner maigre ('The Fish Repast') in 1739, he had been the leading court painter in France of animals, hunts and opulent tabletop still lifes for almost forty years. Received into the Académie Royale in 1699 as an animalier, he quickly became a favorite painter to Louis XIV and Louis XV, admired and depended upon for his diverse abilities and technical proficiency. Within a few years, his many hunt scenes, trompe-l'oeil trophies, portraits of the king's hounds and studies of the exotic animals in the Ménagerie, were decorating the walls of the royal châteaux of Versailles, Marly, Meudon and Fontainebleau, as well as the hôtels particulier of the Parisian beau ...