Pierre-Antoine Quillard, (; c. 1700 – 25 November 1733) was a French portrait painter and engraver who worked in Portugal.

Biography

Quillard's father was a woodworker. He began to study art at a very early age, possibly with

Antoine Watteau Jean-Antoine Watteau (, , ; baptised October 10, 1684died July 18, 1721) Alsavailablevia Oxford Art Online (subscription needed). was a French painter and draughtsman whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement, a ...

, or at least some of his close associates.Brief biography
@ the

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (in Spanish, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (), named after its founder), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Prado Museum on one of the city's main boulevards. I ...

. When he was ten or eleven, his paintings were deemed such perfect copies of Watteau's style that

Cardinal Fleury Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

presented some to King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

, who granted Quillard a pension. After twice failing to win the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

, in 1724 and 1725, and despite having won second place both times, he accepted an offer of work from Charles Frédéric de Merveilleux (d. 1749), a Swiss doctor who was attached to the Royal Court in Lisbon. The position involved drawing illustrations to accompany a

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

the doctor was preparing. Upon Quillard's arrival, Crown Prince (later King)

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

awarded him a pension of 80

cruzados The Cruzados were a 1980s rock band from Los Angeles, California. History The Cruzados were formed in 1983 by the members of The Plugz, featuring members Tito Larriva, Tony Marsico, Steven Hufsteter, Chalo Quintana, The band's self-titled al ...

per month. After spending some time working on Merveilleux's ''Flora'', he was able to obtain an appointment as

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

to King

John V John V may refer to: * Patriarch John V of Alexandria or John the Merciful (died by 620), Patriarch of Alexandria from 606 to 616 * John V of Constantinople, Patriarch from 669 to 675 * Pope John V (685–686), Pope from 685 to his death in 686 * J ...

in 1727. His first assignment was to decorate the ceilings in Queen Maria Anna's apartments. As it turned out, those paintings had a short life, being destroyed in the

Lisbon earthquake of 1755 The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with ...

. Together with several other French and Flemish artists, he was commissioned to illustrate publications issued by the ''Academia Portuguesa de História'', which had been founded in 1721. He worked for the Marquis of Alegrete and the

Count of Ericeira {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2012 Count of Ericeira (''Conde da Ericeira'') was a title created by King Philip III of Portugal, through a 1 March 1622 letter in favour of Diogo de Menezes (1553–1625). * Diogo de Menezes (1622–1625); 1st Coun ...

and produced decorations for the palace of the

Duke of Cadaval The Dukes of Cadaval have their origins in ''Dom'' Álvaro of Braganza, Lord of Tentúgal, Póvoa, Buarcos and Cadaval, 4th male son of ''Dom'' Ferdinand I, 2nd Duke of Braganza. ''Dom'' Álvaro married ''Dona'' Filipa de Melo, the rich daught ...

. Shortly before his death, at the request of the

Duke of Aveiro Duke of Aveiro ( pt, Duque de Aveiro) was a Portuguese title of nobility, granted in 1535 by King John III of Portugal to his 4th cousin, John of Lencastre, son of Infante George of Lencastre, a natural son of King John II of Portugal. Joh ...

, he produced twelve screens for the

Cathedral of Aveiro The Cathedral of Aveiro ( pt, Sé de Aveiro), also known as the ''Church of St. Dominic'' ( pt, Igreja de São Domingos) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Aveiro, Portugal. It is the seat of the Diocese of Aveiro The Portuguese Roman Catholic ...

, a former Dominican convent.Correio do Vouga
: "Conferência sobre as pinturas do cadeiral da Sé de Aveiro" Because of the huge demand for paintings in Watteau's style that arose after his death in 1721, very few works have been positively identified as Quillard's and a

catalogue raisonné A ''catalogue raisonné'' (or critical catalogue) is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known artworks by an artist either in a particular medium or all media. The works are described in such a way that they may be reliably identified ...

has yet to be created.

References

External links

Arcadja Auctions: More works by Quillard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quillard, Pierre-Antoine 1700 births 1733 deaths 18th-century French painters Portrait painters French emigrants to Portugal

Biography

References

Further reading

External links