As a student, Louis Jean François Lagrenée won the Prix de Rome at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1749. Following a brief stay in Rome, he was received into the Académie in 1755 with the completion of a painting that earned him favorable comparisons with Guido Reni. From 1760 until 1762, he directed the Saint Petersburg Academy at the Russian court. Upon his return to Paris, La
