Michel Garnier was born in Saint-Cloud and studied with the painter Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre (1713-1789). From 1793 until 1814, he was an exhibitor at the Salon in Paris, mainly of genre subjects in the fashion established by such contemporary painters as Marguerite Gérard and Louis-Léopold Boilly. Garnier also painted portraits and, later, still lives.

Garnier's elegant, yet highly refined and crisp handling of paint was particularly well suited for the depiction of fashionable and ornately dressed Parisians. The artist's detailed attention to both costume and interior adornments reflect an understanding of the Dutch "fijnschilder" technique, which enables him to accurately represent th...