Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée Paris 1724 - 1805

Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée also called Lagrenée the elder  was born in Paris into a family of artists. He studied with his brother Jean-Jacques, trained with Carle Vanloo, won the Prix de Rome in 1749 and studied at the French Academy in that city.  He became a member of the art academies in St. Petersburg and in Paris and exhibited prominently in the Salon.

The present painting is a marvelous example of Lagrenée at his best, when he mixes sensuality and freshness to the happy subject depicted.  A painting such as this would certainly justify Diderot's comments on the artist that "he is a real painter, he has drawing, color, flesh, expression, the most beautiful draperies, the most beautifully characterized heads...his compositions are simple, his actions truthful, his color beautiful and solid...There are pictures by him in which the severest eye fails to discern the slighest fault."¹

1 Diderot, commentary on Lagrenée at the Salon of 1765, translated by J. Goodman.