François-Hubert Drouais

Drouais was of Norman extraction but spent all of his life in and around Paris. After studying with his father, a miniaturist, he worked in the studios of Carle Vanloo, Natoire, and Boucher. In 1757 he executed his first royal commission, and the following year he was received as a full member in the Academy. Succeeding Latour and Nattier, Drouais became the most prominent French portraitist of the mid eighteenth century, painting courtiers, foreign aristocrats, writers, and fellow artists. Drouais’ son, Germain-Jean, was a promising history painter who died at twenty-five.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.