Louis Caravaque

Caravaque followed in his father's footsteps, starting work at the Arsenal Galeries in Marseille.

In 1715 in Paris he attracted the attention of Peter Lefort with his portraits, with whom he concluded a contract to work in Russia for three years as a painter and with the additional obligation of training Russian pupils.

Caravaque lived on Vasilyevsky Island near the Menshikov Palace, in his own house presented to him in 1722 by Peter I.

During Anna of Russia's reign, he was appointed "the first painter at court" (at first with a salary of 1500 rubles, later worked up to 2000 rubles a year), he painted her coronation portrait and took part in the decoration of the coronation celebrations.

In May 1743 he was entrusted with a responsible order - to execute fourteen portraits of Elizabeth for Russian embassies abroad.