Louis Martinet

[1] Louis Martinet was born in Paris and studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Baron Gros.

[9] The Gallery Martinet notably exhibited works by Jean-François Millet, Jules Dupré, and Théodore Rousseau,[1] as well as other artists, including James McNeill Whistler, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Courbet (1863),[10] and Honoré Daumier.

[11] In May 1862, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt visited, to see Jesus Among the Doctors by Ingres, which was hanging among other paintings by Delacroix, Flandrin, Fantin-Latour and Carolus-Duran.

[12] Supporter of a project of total artistic experience and fusion of the arts,[8] Martinet also broadened the activities of his gallery by installing a small concert room and holding recitals there, at first sporadically, but later daily, organized by the singer Gustave Roger and the conductor and composer Jean-Jacques Debillemont.

It ceased its activities in 1865 and was converted into a theater, the Théâtre des Fantaisies-Parisiennes, whose direction was first undertaken, on 3 November 1865, by Jules Champfleury.

Martinet declared the enterprise bankrupt on 6 June 1872, after which the rights were acquired by Jules Ruelle, who reopened it as the Théâtre de l'Athénée on 10 October 1872.