Name Louis-Abraham Loo Role Jacob van Loo's son | Parents Jacob van Loo Children Jean-Baptiste van Loo | |
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Grandchildren Louis-Michel van Loo, Charles-Amedee-Philippe van Loo, Francois van Loo People also search for Jean-Baptiste van Loo, Jacob van Loo, Charles-Andre van Loo | ||
Louis-Abraham van Loo ([lwis.abʁaɑ̃ vɑ̃ lɔo]); Amsterdam 1653 - Nice 1712; known as Abraham van Loo until his conversion to Catholicism in 1681: also known as Louis or Ludovic van Loo) was a baroque mannerist painter and a member of the van Loo dynasty of painters. Louis-Abraham was the son of the Dutch Golden Age painter Jacob van Loo and father to the painters Jean-Baptiste van Loo and Charles-André van Loo (known as Carle van Loo.) The majority of Louis-Abraham’s paintings were of religious subject matter. After renouncing his Jewish faith and converting to Roman Catholicism in 1681, Louis-Abraham received painting and fresco commissions from the church and from a number of enclosed religious orders in Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Grasse, Majorca and Nice. He also received commissions to complete the fine decoration (including paintings for the officer’s quarters) of several ships of the Marine Royale (French Navy) at Toulon. He died in Nice in 1712.
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Flight to Paris
Abraham was born in Amsterdam in 1653 but was taken to Paris at the age of seven. His father Jacob van Loo had been involved in an altercation at an inn, during which he stabbed a man with his sword. The man subsequently died of his injuries and Jacob was found guilty of murder and forced to flee the country with his family.
In 1667, Abraham and his brother Jean were naturalised as French citizens. The brothers followed courses offered by the Académie Royale de peinture but on 29 November 1670 one of them was expelled for Vois de Fait (assault). Both boys ceased attending the courses, though a year later, in 1671, each won a prize at the salon exhibition in the Palais du Louvre. Abraham achieved a huitième prix (eighth prize) for a painting entitled Louis XIV donnant la paix a L’europe; a canvas which celebrated the end of the war of devolution achieved by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668).
Travels in Italy
Abraham and Jean van Loo disappeared from the records for a period of ten years after their expulsion from the Academy. It is assumed that they travelled extensively throughout Italy during this time, perfecting their art.
Abraham turned up in the records of the church of the Ursulines in Lyon in 1681, where he was said to have renounced his Jewish faith and converted to Roman Catholicism. It was at this point that he also adopted the forename Louis (or Ludovic).
Commissions
On 27 January 1683, he married Marie Fossé, daughter of the sculptor Jacques Fossé. Louis’ eldest son Jean-Baptiste van Loo was born at Aix on 11 January 1684. Jean-Baptiste would later become the tutor of his much younger brother Carle van Loo, who, in turn, would become the most successful painter of the van Loo dynasty.
Legacy
For many years, Louis-Abraham was thought to have lived a modest life, with relatively few commissions. However, studies published in the years 1985 and 2000 suggested that Louis’ work was difficult to distinguish from typical baroque mannerist paintings of his era, which explains why an assessment of his oeuvre has always been problematic. It was demonstrated that even during his quietest final thirteen years, Louis had scattered a number of paintings among the grand houses of Provence and Northern Italy. On 24 October 1707, he also received a commission for twelve paintings to decorate the Palais-Royal in Paris, on the occasion of the birth of Louis, son of Philip of Spain and grandson of Louis XIV. After his death, a further ten paintings were recorded in his studio inventory, all at various stages of completion.