Louis Caravaque

Caravaque was born in Marseilles, in a family of a painter-decorator who specialised in painting ships from Gascony. 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.[1] He went to Russia, and painted a portrait of Peter the Great at Astrakhan in 1716 . It was engraved by Massard and by Langlois. Caravaque lived on Vasilyevsky Island near the Menshikov Palace, in his own house presented to him in 1722 by Peter I.[2] He also lived in Moscow.

During Anna Ioannovna's reign, he was appointed "the first painter at court" (at first with a salary of 1500 rubles, later 2000 rubles a year), he painted her coronation portrait and took part in the decoration of the coronation celebrations. He remained as a goffmiller under Anna Leopoldovna and Elizaveta Petrovna. He became the author of the official "approved" image of Elisabeth as the new Empress. In May 1743 he was entrusted with a responsible order - to execute fourteen portraits of Elizabeth for Russian embassies abroad.[3] He also participated in the decoration of her coronation.

He died in Russia St. Petersburg, on June 9, 1754.[4]

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  Portrait of Peter the Great.
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  Portrait of the future Empress Elizabeth as an Olympic goddess. Now at the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
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  Portrait of Catherine II of Russia, 1745. Now at the Gatchina Palace.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Caravaque, Louis". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). Vol. I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.

• Tretyakov Gallery