Louis-Michel van Loo

(b Toulon, 2 March 1707; d Paris, 20 March 1771). Painter, son of (2) Jean-Baptiste van Loo. He trained with his father in Turin and Rome, later attending the courses of the Acad?mie Royale in Paris. He received the institution's first prize for painting in 1726, and in 1728, accompanied by his brother, Fran?ois, and his uncle, Carle, returned to Rome where he was associated with Fran?ois Boucher. On his way back to France, he stayed for a time in Turin, painting portraits (untraced) of the royal family of Sardinia, the Duke and Duchess of Savoy. In Paris he was admitted (re?u) to membership of the Acad?mie Royale and in 1735 was appointed assistant teacher at the Acad?mie, becoming renowned as a specialist in portrait painting. Most of his portraits from this period are half-length, combining ideas from Hyacinthe Rigaud's later work with other more natural and innovative ones. On the death of Jean Ranc, Philip V of Spain asked Rigaud to suggest a substitute, and van Loo was proposed. He arrived in Madrid in 1737 and remained there as Pintor de la Corte until 1752, responding with modern aesthetic ideas to the demands of the Spanish monarchs for pomp and splendour. He carried out court commissions but devoted part of his time to teaching, his pupils often becoming studio assistants. He also took an active part in meetings held over a number of years to establish the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de S Fernando, for which he produced the canvas, the Education of Cupid by Venus and Mercury (1748; Madrid, Real Acad. S Fernando, Mus.), in which the three figures appear in a garden set in an architectural background. In 1752 he was appointed director of painting, a post he barely enjoyed, since he returned to Paris that year.

Part of the Loo, van family

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