1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lagrenée, Louis Jean François

LAGRENÉE, LOUIS JEAN FRANÇOIS (1724–1805), French painter, was a pupil of Carle Vanloo. Born at Paris on the 30th of December 1724, 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 legion of honour, and on the 19th of June 1805 he died in the Louvre, of which he was honorary keeper.