Background
He was born in Nice, then part of the Duchy of Savoy.
painter Premier peintre du Roi
He was born in Nice, then part of the Duchy of Savoy.
Van Loo followed his brother Jean-Baptiste to Turin, and then to Rome in 1712, where he studied under Benedetto Luti and the sculptor Pierre Legros.
His oeuvre includes every category: religion, history painting, mythology, portraiture, allegory, and genre scenes. After again visiting Turin in 1727, he was employed by king Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, for whom he painted a series of subjects illustrative of Tasso. Madame de Pompadour and the French court were taking the artist under their patronage.
He was decorated with the Order of Saint Michael and named First Painter to king Louis XV of France in 1762.
He was a most successful court painter but his portraits as well as history paintings also enjoyed an enormous success throughout all Europe. He died in Paris on 15 July 1765.
Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture]
He was the most famous member of a successful dynasty of painters of Dutch origin. In 1734 he settled in Paris, and in 1735 became a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and rose rapidly in the hierarchy of the academy.