Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée

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Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (December 30, 1724 – June 19, 1805) was a French painter, a pupil of Carlo Vanloo.

Lagrenée was born in Paris. In 1755 he became a member of the Royal Academy, presenting as his diploma picture the Rape of Deianira (Louvre). He visited St Petersburg at the call of the empress Elizabeth, and on his return was named in 1781 director of the French Academy at Rome; he there painted the Indian Widow, one of his best-known works.

In 1804 Napoleon conferred on him the cross of the légion d'honneur, and on June 19, 1805 he died in the Louvre, of which he was honorary keeper.

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.