CHARLES-ANDRÉ VAN LOO (1705-1765)

STUDY OF A STANDING FEMALE NUDE
Signed l.m. Van Loo fec.
Black & white chalks on blue laid paper
52 x 27 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
Paul Wallraf (1897-1981), Cologne;
His sale, Christie's, London, 09.07.1982, lot 256 (sold for £172.70);
Private Collection, London
 
 
 
 
Charles-André (sometimes spelt Carle-André) van Loo is today the best-known member of a celebrated family of artists of Flemish origin, working in France in the 17th and 18th centuries. Born in Nice, he studied first under the auspices of his brother Jean-Baptiste, who was considerably older, who took him on an extensive tour of Italy as part of his studies. 
 
Armed with this expertise, the younger van Loo entered the Paris Academy already a prodigious talent, and went on to win the Prix de Rome in 1724, delaying his sponsored travels back to Italy until 1728. He remained there for six years, staying in Rome, Naples and Turin, where he worked on decorative commissions for local villas and palazzi. The frescoes he painted during this period were wonderful, illusionary depictions of mythological subjects which won him much acclaim. Van Loo returned to Paris as a well-established painter, and was elected a Professor at the Academy in 1737, later becoming Director in 1763. He was also made Director of the École des Elèves Protégés in 1749. However, the greatest honour that he received came in 1762, when Louis XV named him Premier Peintre du Roi, one of the best-paid and most significant titles that an artist in Europe could attain. 
 
Charles-André’s reputation was, perhaps inevitably, overshadowed by Boucher after his death, but he was undoubtedly one of the finest draughtsmen of the mid-18th century working in France. Even during his lifetime, his first biographer (Michel-François Dandré-Bardon) praised his apparently effortless, masterful handling of chalk, and his drawings continue to delight today.