Noël Desenfans

Noël Desenfans (December 1741 – 8 July 1807) was a French-born art dealer mainly active in Britain, most notable for laying the foundation for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London alongside the landscape painter Francis Bourgeois.

Life Born in Avesnes-sur-Helpe and studying in Douai and Paris, he initially aimed to become a playwright but in 1769 instead settled in London to become a language teacher. There, in 1776, he married the wealthy Margaret Morris (1731–1813), sister of Sir John Morris of Claremont, Glamorganshire. That wealth allowed him to enter the art trade, a sphere first suggested to him by his buying a Claude and selling it on to George III,