Jean-Louis Voille

Jean-Louis Voille was born in Paris and raised in a family of French jewellers. He was a student of the famous French painter Francois-Hubert Drouais at the Academie Royale. Voille originally came to Saint Petersburg as an actor, although he was already a competent portraitist, and in time found an entrance to the court of Grand Duke Paul (later Paul I). He painted several portraits of Paul, his wife Maria Fyodorovna, and other members of the Russian nobility, becoming one of the leading portraitists of the day in St. Petersburg. In 1795, Voille returned to France where he exhibited his works at the Paris Salon, but he returned to St. Petersburg after Napoleon came to power. Little is known about his later life.

Works: Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (Paul I) (State Hermitage Museum), Portrait of Grand Duchess Marie Fyodorovna (State Russian Museum), Portrait of Ivan Perfilevich Elagin (State Russian Museum), Portrait of Elisaveta Alexandrovna Demidova, nee Stroganova (State Hermitage Museum), Portrait of Anna Lopukhina-Gagarina (State Hermitage Museum), Portrait of Olga Zherebtsova (State Hermitage Museum), Portrait of Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov (State Russian Museum)