Jean Etienne Liotard Biography
Jean-Étienne Liotard (Geneva, 22 December 1702 – Geneva, 12 June 1789) was a Swiss painter of the 18th century. Born in Geneva in 1702 to French parents, he trained with the miniaturist Daniel Gardelle for a few months and subsequently spent three years in Paris with the painter and engraver Massè. Of the first production inscribed in the thirteen years in Paris, we know of only one painting, the only one with a historical subject in his production, which deals with the theme of the Old Testament. In 1735 he stayed in Italy, remaining there for two and a half years and passing through Florence, Rome and Naples, where he copied some classical subjects and came into contact with young British aristocrats who were also visiting the peninsula. In 1739 he was in Constantinople where he remained for four years, inserted in the environments of the embassies, the rich merchants and the sultan's court and portrayed in hundreds of drawings in black pencil or sanguine characters such as diplomats, European ladies, servants, as well as the bare interiors and silent and colorful customs of that multi-ethnic society. After subsequent trips to Moldavia and Vienna, where he achieved great success and the friendship of the Empress, he was back in Paris from 1746 to 1753 and immediately afterwards in London where he remained until 1755 and portrayed the family of the Prince of Wales and various aristocrats. He then left for the Netherlands (1756) and here he married a young woman with whom he settled in Geneva in 1758 and had five children. He will continue to travel in search of commissions and will find himself again in Vienna, Paris, London and once again in Vienna. Elderly and without commissions, he retired to his residence in Geneva painting still lifes and died here in 1789.
