Jean Valade (1710 - 12 December 1787) was a French painter and pastel artist of the

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

movement, specializing in portraiture.

Early life

He was born in

Poitiers Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...

. Valade was the son of Léonard who was also a painter and Marie Bellot. He trained with his father before moving to Paris in 1739. He married Gabrielle Louise Remond, 20 November 1752, and has no descendants. His great nephew was

Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Chaussard Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Chaussard (29 January 1766, Paris – 30 September 1823), known as Publicola Chaussard, was a French writer, art critic, poet, revolutionary, politician and follower of Theophilanthropy. According to Michaud in his ''Biograph ...

School

In 1750, he was admitted to the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

and was appointed academician, September 29, 1754. He became a student of

Charles-Antoine Coypel Charles-Antoine Coypel (11 July 1694 – 14 June 1752) was a French painter, art commentator, and playwright. He became court painter to the French king and director of the Académie Royale. He inherited the title of ''Garde des tableaux et de ...

, official Painter to the King and theorist, a member of the French School. Valade was later appointed painter to the king. He participated in numerous exhibitions between 1751 and 1781.

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promine ...

published several negative reviews of her portraits. In 1769, he denounced Valade at the Salon, because in his view " eis not a poor painter, but a very poor painter, because you can not do two jobs at once."

Work

Jean Valade was very popular as a portraitist, and also as a specialist in pastel, which earned him a large clientele of nobles and bourgeois. During the 1760s, he produced both oil pastel at the portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Faventines Fontenille playing music as well as those of Peter and Elizabeth Faventines, the portrait of Joseph Balthasar Gibert, and one of Mr. Carré de Cande. Two museums on permanent display several works Valade: the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans and the Musée Rupert-de-Chièvres. Other portraits can be found in

Saint-Quentin, Aisne Saint-Quentin (; pcd, Saint-Kintin; nl, label=older Dutch, Sint-Kwintens ) is a city in the Aisne department, Hauts-de-France, northern France. It has been identified as the ''Augusta Veromanduorum'' of antiquity. It is named after Saint Qu ...

The Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...

, and the

Château de Maisons The Château de Maisons (now Château de Maisons-Laffitte), designed by François Mansart from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of French baroque architecture and a reference point in the history of French architecture. The château is located in M ...

Death

Jean Valade died December 12, 1787, in his apartment in the cloister of St. Honoré. He was buried the next day in the vault of the chapel of the Virgin in the church of Saint-Honoré, in the presence of the architect

Jean-Baptiste Chaussard Jean-Baptiste Chaussard (4 September 1729, Tonnerre - 26 June 1818, Paris) was a French architect to the king,''Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, ou, Histoire par ordre ...'', Par Joseph Fr. Michaud, Louis Gabriel Michaud, p.561 assoc ...

and Jean-Baptiste Adam, the husband of his nieces.

References

* Klinka-Ballesteros, The Pastels, Friends of Museums of Orleans, 2005. * Trope Marie-Helene Jean Valade, museum Sainte-Croix de Poitiers, 1993 1710 births 1787 deaths People from Poitiers 18th-century French painters French male painters Pastel artists 18th-century French male artists {{France-painter-18thC-stub