François Jean SABLET called Le Romain is a painter of history, genre, portraits and landscapes. Naturalized French in 1805. He exhibited at the Salon in 1798, 1804, 1817 and 1819 (posthumous exhibition). He was born in Morges, Switzerland, on November 23, 1745. Son of the picture and works of art merchant Jacob SABLET dit Jacques. From his childhood he demonstrated remarkable dispositions for painting. At 22 years old (in 1767), he came to Paris and was a student of Joseph-Marie VIEN (future director of the Academy of Rome and First painter of the King). He then went to Rome and worked there successfully (hence his nickname "The Roman" which he kept all his life). In 1777, he obtained a subsidy from the city of Berne to continue his studies in Paris. On November 20, 1777, he married a french woman Madeleine BOREL. Considered an excellent portrait painter, he collaborated with Madame Vigée LEBRUN. He performed figures and she painted the draperies. The first events of the French Revolution brought him back to Switzerland, but he stayed there little. Returning to Paris on August 2, 1793, he received himself a member of the Republican Society of the Arts. Around 1803, he decided to follow the architect Mathurin CRUCY, whom he had met, in Nantes where he recommended him and put him in a position to make a good situation for himself. He quickly created a clientele as portrait painter or landscape designer, painting in particular for the city six large gray paintings recalling the passage of Napoleon 1st. He thus left a large number of paintings of all kinds in Nantes. He died in Nantes, France, on February 24, 1819