Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702 –1789) was a Genevan painter of French origin, art connoisseur, dealer and best known for his detailed, strikingly naturalistic portraits in pastel, copperplate engravings, and glass painting.
He preferred the smiling subjects and he created works celebrating science, like the painting of woman paying homage to the doctor that saved her.
Liotard, also known as ‘le peintre de la verité’, chose the medium of pastel, in order to give his paintings a naturalistic effect.
The Lavergne family breakfast
He studied in Paris under Jean-Baptiste Massé and François Lemoyne and he worked in Rome, Paris, Vienna, London, and other cities.
During his stay in Türkiye he painted numerous pastels of domestic scenes.
He went to Holland in 1756, where, in the following year, he married Marie Fargues.
He wrote a Treatise on the Art of Painting and was an expert collector of paintings by the old masters.
