Michel ange houasse biography of abraham

He was the first French artist to receive the title of court painter to the King of Spain and was the only artist to paint portraits of the monarch prior to the arrival of Jean Ranc in 1722.

From that point Houasse’s output focused on more lighthearted themes, particularly genres scenes of the type that so delighted Philip V for the decoration of his private rooms in the new palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso. Houasse was a consummate draughtsman who made ample use of this discipline for two purposes: firstly to prepare his compositions in detail, following the traditional academic practice, and secondly to reproduce his paintings for engravings to be made after them.

Nonetheless, Houasse’s known output of drawings was not particularly large and in recent years new attributions have been made, expanding the corpus. ² At the present date around 40 drawings can be securely attributed to the artist.

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