Jean Raoux 1677-1734

L’indiscrète, Musée Calvet Avignon

Portrait de Mademoiselle Prevost en baccahante, musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours

Formé auprès de Antoine Ranc à Montpellier puis dans l’atelier de Bon Boullongne à Paris, Jean Raoux séjourne ensuite à Rome, Padoue et Venise entre 1705 et 1714 avant de revenir à Paris en 1714
Protégé par Philippe de Vendôme et contemporain de Antoine Watteau, Raoux gravite dans le milieu libertin de la Régence. Il y trouve l’inspiration pour ses tableaux exaltant la beauté et la jeunesse de la femme et contribue à la création des scènes de genre « à la française ». Il est très apprécié de ses contemporains, notamment Voltaire qui le compare à Rembrandt, et les commandes de client prestigieux affluent : Catherine II de Russie, Philippe d’Orléans, etc.

Jean Raoux 1677-1734

Portrait de Dame tenant une corbeille de Fleurs sur fond de parc avec une balustrade et une statue de flore, Châteaux de Versailles et Trianon

Télémaque raconte ses aventures à Calypso, musée du Louvre

Jean Raoux first trained in Montpellier with a pupil of Hyacinthe Rigaud, then moved to a Paris studio. After winning the Prix de Rome in 1704, Raoux was able to complete his education at the Académie de France in Rome and spent time in Florence and Padua. From 1707 to 1709 he was in Venice, where he met the leader of the Knights of Malta, who later offered him generous lodgings in Paris. Raoux’s paintings on classical and literary themes display the light, cheerful atmosphere of the fêtes galantes invented by Jean-Antoine Watteau. Coincidentally, Raoux became a full member of Paris’s Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1717 on the same day as Watteau. Raoux painted numerous portraits, both conventional formal representations and women as mythological figures. In his smaller portraits and genre subjects, he often treated light in a manner reminiscent of Rembrandt van Rijn.

Jean Raoux 1677-1734

Girl playing with a bird on a string 1717

Portrait de Mademoiselle Prevost en bacchante, musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours

Two young ladies singing in an elegant interior

Jeune fille lisant une lettre, musée du Louvre

Jean Raoux first trained in Montpellier with a pupil of Hyacinthe Rigaud, then moved to a Paris studio. After winning the Prix de Rome in 1704, Raoux was able to complete his education at the Académie de France in Rome and spent time in Florence and Padua. From 1707 to 1709 he was in Venice, where he met the leader of the Knights of Malta, who later offered him generous lodgings in Paris. Raoux’s paintings on classical and literary themes display the light, cheerful atmosphere of the fêtes galantes invented by Jean-Antoine Watteau. Coincidentally, Raoux became a full member of Paris’s Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1717 on the same day as Watteau. Raoux painted numerous portraits, both conventional formal representations and women as mythological figures. In his smaller portraits and genre subjects, he often treated light in a manner reminiscent of Rembrandt van Rijn.

Jean Raoux 1677-1734

Orpheus and Eurydice

JEAN RAOUX