Jean-Étienne Liotard

Republic of Geneva · 1702–1789

Jean-Étienne Liotard was a Genevan painter, pastellist, printmaker, art theorist and art dealer. Born in the Republic of Geneva as the son of exiled French Huguenots, he spent most of his career working in cities such as Rome, Istanbul, Paris, Vienna, London, Amsterdam and other cities. He is best known for his detailed, strikingly naturalistic portraits in pastel and Orientalist scenes of life in Turkey. As an art theorist he wrote the Traité des Principes et règles de la Peinture (Treatise on the Principles and Rules of Painting) in which he argued that painting should to be a mirror of nature.