Dimensions: 46 x 38 cm
Condition
stains
Literature
pastellists.com website, no. J.518.2075
Biography
Polish painter of French origin, court painter to Polish kings August III and Stanislaw August Poniatowski. Louis' father was an ebenist carpenter employed in the royal workshops at Versailles, his mother was Marie-Anne, daughter of painter Charles Hérault, sister of Marie-Cathérine, wife of Louis de Silvestre the younger, court painter of Saxony. The exact date of Louis Marteau's arrival in Poland is not known. According to one hypothesis, he was recommended to the Polish king by his teacher, Maurice Quintin de la Toura. The influence that Louis de Silvestre had at the Polish-Saxon court probably also contributed to this decision. In October 1752. Marteau stayed for some time at the court of Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki in Bialystok. In November, the artist went to Warsaw, where he stayed in the stateroom of Branicki's palace on Podwale Street. In 1753. Marteau painted portraits of the hetman and his wife. Probably still during the lifetime of August III, Marteau obtained the position of court artist. However, it was only the care that Stanislaus Augustus extended to the young artist that allowed him to fully develop his career. From 1768 to 1780, the artist lived on Jezuicka Street (near the Royal Castle), where he received visits from the king. In 1792 he moved to a tenement on Swietokrzyska Street. In 1780-1783 Marteau gave painting lessons to Anna Rajecka, later a royal scholarship recipient - the first Polish artist whose work was presented in the Paris Salon[4]. Rajecka valued Marteau, and kept in touch with him even after her departure to France. She conveyed a high opinion of him to her husband, Pierre-Marie Gault de Saint Germain, who included Marteau's person in the study he was preparing of the history of French painting, comparing him to Quentin de La Toura. Marteau was very popular in Warsaw circles, he was popular, respected and liked. According to an anecdote quoted by Edward Rastawiecki: "He always carried himself in the French manner, with his hairstyle, in his boots, in short shorts with white stockings, even in winter. He used to go often to dinner to Prince August Poniatowski Voivode of Russia, to the Palace on Krakowskie Przedmieście today Potocki; and when there was mud or snow that he never wanted to go, therefore two of the Prince's highwaymen would then size him up from his apartment to go...". Marteau was listed in royal records as "peintre du Roi" (from 1765 to 1795). He received a fixed salary and additional payments for individual works. In the project for an academy of fine arts, which was ultimately not realized, he was to be given the position of professor of painting (with an annual salary of 300 ducats]. A special honor for Marteau was that he was commissioned to work on a series of portraits depicting the guests of the famous royal "Thursday dinners." After the death of Stanislaw August, Marteau was taken under her patronage by Izabela Lubomirska, daughter of the Prince Voivode of Ruthenia. At the time, the artist lived in an inn at her Warsaw palace, receiving a salary of 3 ducats per month.
