Canvas re-lined 81.5 cm by 65 cm
Old frame 90 cm by 71 cm
This very beautiful painting offers us the image of a painter in the process of making the antique portrait of his model. The artist is seated on a very beautiful neo-classical armchair, his model is holding a garland of flowers whose representation is characteristic of the painter. Also note this marble column surmounted by a superb richly ornamented vase. The entire composition, colored by an Artist with a generous palette, is of great elegance.
Charles Amédée Philippe Van Loo (1719 1795)
Pupil of his father Jean-Baptiste van Loo in Turin and Rome. Two of his brothers François van Loo (1708 1732) and Loui Michen=l van Loo (1707 1771) are also painters. He is also the nephew of the painter Carl van Loo (Charles André), younger brother of his father. He obtained the Prix de Rome in 1738 then moved to Paris in 1745 after a stay in Aix en Provence and became a member of the Academy in 1747: Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (Notre-Dame de Versailles). The same year, he married his cousin Marie Marguerite Lebrun, daughter of the painter Charles Lebrun. A year later, the Marquis d'Argens had him engaged in the service of King Frederick of Prussia, whom he left from 1758 to 1763 (Baptism of Christ, Salon of 1761; Versailles, Saint-Louis Cathedral) and whom he joined in 1763 to return to Paris only in 1769. He was appointed professor of painting at the School of Fine Arts in Paris on July 7, 1770, confirmed on November 30, 1794. Charles Natoire's successor to this post, he was replaced by Jean Baptiste Regnault in 1807 His work is considerable and can be found mainly in Berlin and Potsdam (allegorical ceilings, portraits, large historical or mythological paintings, gallant paintings inspired by Watteau). Between 1773 and 1775, for the Manufacture des Gobelins, he executed the tapestry cartoons for the Turkish Costume Hanging, which are among the most important examples of taste for the Orient: the Sultana and the odalisques (1774), the Toilette of a Sultana (1774, Louvre).