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John Baptist Vanloo

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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JOHN BAPTIST VANLOO (1684-1745), French subject and portrait painter, was born at Aix in Provence on the 14th of January 1684. He was instructed in art by his father. Having at an early age executed several pictures for the decoration of the church and public buildings at Aix, he was employed on similar work at Toulon, which he was obliged to leave during the siege of 1707. He was patronized by the prince of Carignan, who sent him to Rome, where he studied under Benedetto Luti. Here he was much employed on church pictures, and in particular executed a greatly praised "Scourging of Christ" for St Maria in Monticelli. At Turin he painted the duke of Savoy and several members of his court. Then, removing to Paris, where he was elected a member of the French Academy, he executed various altar-pieces and restored the works of Primaticcio at Fontainebleau. In 1737 he went to England, where he attracted attention by his portrait of Colley Cibber and of Owen McSwiny, the theatrical manager; the latter, like many other of Vanloo's works, was engraved in mezzotint by the younger Faber. He also painted Sir Robert Walpole, whose portrait by Vanloo in his robes as chancellor of the exchequer is in the National Portrait Gallery (London), and the prince and princess of Wales. He did not, however, practise long in England, for his health failing he retired to Paris in 1742, and afterwards to Aix, where he died on the 19th of December 1745. His likenesses were striking and faithful, but seldom flattering, and his heads are forcible in colouring. The draperies and accessories in his pictures were usually painted by Van Achen, Eccardt and Root.