The son of Samson de Granges and his wife Marie Bouvier, he was baptised twice, first on 24 March 1611, at the French church on
Threadneedle Street, with Esther des Granges the wife of
Elias Le Tellier as witness, and later at
St Ann Blackfriars. He married in 1636 and moved from the parish of St Ann Blackfriars to
Long Acre, where he was living again at the end of his life, c.1672. Des Granges was initially influenced as a miniature painter by
John Hoskins and
Peter Oliver. Contemporaries attest that he worked also as an engraver, and in oils; he is thought to have been involved in the copying of miniatures, a form of production that became important with the outbreak of the
English Civil War and the demand for tokens of loyalty. Des Granges was with
Charles II in Scotland in the early 1650s, copying a likeness of Charles by
Adriaen Hanneman. After the
English Restoration of 1660, Des Granges was influenced by the court painter
Jacob Huysmans, and possibly also
Samuel Cooper. He was considered a leading artist of his time, but his authentic works are not now easy to identify. ==Notes==