MARIANNE LOIR (PARIS C. 1715-1769)

Marianne Loir was the daughter of the goldsmith Alexis II Loir and granddaughter of the history painter and engraver Nicolas-Pierre Loir. She studied under both Hubert Drouais and Jean François de Troy, the latter of whom was director of the French Academy in Rome, where she was resident between 1738 and 1746. Loir may have found it difficult to compete for portrait commissions in Paris and is recorded as a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Marseille in 1762. Her delicately rendered portraits with refined color schemes found particular appeal among the French nobility and intellectual elite.