Born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1702, Jean-Étienne Liotard demonstrated a talent for drawing at a very early age. Initially trained in oil painting, he refined his delicate style by creating miniatures. He later applied his skill for fine detail to the pastel medium, for which he is best known. In his twenties he moved to Paris and studied in a prominent studio, but left for Italy after a rejection from the Académie Royale. Painting portraits along the way, he traveled through the Mediterranean, finally settling for several years in Constantinople. By adopting the native dress, and growing a substantial beard, he earned the nickname of “the Turkish painter” while he made portraits of prominent British colonists in Constantinople. Liotard spent the rest of his career traveling throughout Europe creating pastel portraits, and was quite
well -known and admired during his lifetime. At the
age of eighty-seven, Liotard died in Geneva in 1789.