François-Hubert Drouais a leading French painter during the later part of Louis XV's reign.
Drouais was born and died in Paris. He was apprenticed successively to his father Hubert Drouais, to Donat Nonnotte, to Charles-André van Loo, to Charles-Joseph Natoire, and to François Boucher. He eventually replaced the latter as the favorite painter of Madame de Pompadour and went on to be employed by Madame du Barry as well. He was especially renowned and prized for his portraits of children. His disciples included Catherine Lusurier and his son Jean-Germain Drouais.
Drouais specialized in portraits of the French royalty, nobility, foreign aristocrats, writers, and other artists. Some of his portraits include Louis XV, his wife Marie Leszczyńska the queen of France, his last two mistresses, Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry respectively. He even painted the young Marie Antoinette.
Madame Sophie de France, 1762, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Portrait de Buffon (1707-1788)
Portrait of Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764)
Madame Drouais (1758) Musée du Louvre, Paris
Louise Marie Thérèse "Bathilde d'Orléans" and her brother Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans, later known as Philippe Égalité, with an their deceased older sister in the form of an angel (c 1755)
Monsieur Denis-Paul le Pot de la Fontaine(?), 1772, oil on canvas, The Detroit Institute of Arts
His signature in "Family Portrait" in the collection of the National Gallery of Art

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