Jean-Étienne Liotard

Jean-Étienne Liotard (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ etjɛn ljɔtaʁ]; 22 December 1702 – 12 June 1789) was a Genevan[1] painter, art connoisseur and dealer.

[3] Jean-Étienne Liotard began his studies under professors Daniel Gardelle and Petitot, whose enamels and miniatures he copied with considerable skill.

Using modern dress was considered unheroic and inelegant in history painting using Middle Eastern settings, with Europeans wearing local costume, as travellers were advised to do.

Best known for his graceful and delicate pastel drawings,[7] of which La Liseuse, The Chocolate Girl, and La Belle Lyonnaise at the Dresden Gallery and Maria Frederike van Reede-Athlone at Seven at the J. Paul Getty Museum are delightful examples, he also achieved distinction for his enamels, copperplate engravings, and glass painting.

[7] Also indicative of the era, Liotard created works celebrating science, like the painting of woman paying homage to the doctor that saved her.

[7] Liotard, also known as ‘le peintre de la verité’, chose the medium of pastel, in order to give his paintings a naturalistic effect.

The rejection that Liotard received from the Académie Royale de Peinture in Paris on his historical works in oil paint may have been a stimulus for him to go back to his beloved medium, in which he was notably more skilled.

In his treatise Liotard mentions the importance of l’élimination des touches, in order to provide a realistic imitation of nature.

[9] It is thus unquestionable that Liotard chose the pastel medium because of its ability to imitate nature, which he found the most important aspect of painting.

[10] The proportions of pastel result in a particularly dry material that affords intense and vibrant colours, which Liotard valued working with.

"[11] Liotard is known for pressing pastel quite forcefully onto the paper to create extra brilliance in order to exaggerate these qualities.

Liotard mostly used vellum, a surface made from the skin of calves, goats and lambs, for his pastel works as it retains the brilliance of the pigment best.