Olga's Gallery

Jean-Louis Voille was born in Paris in 1744; he was a student of François Hubert Drouais. From early 1770s Voille worked in Russia, approximately in 1780 he became the court painter of the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (future Emperor Paul I). In the middle of the 1790s he returned to France: Catherine II offered all Frenchmen in Russia to renounce the French Revolution, and Voille refused to sign the oath of allegiance and left for Paris. He came back to St. Petersburg after Napoleon I usurped power and the French Republic started to become an Empire.
His portraits reveal soft delicacy and tact; strong passions do not disturb their peace of mind, it seems the painter does not see the dark sides in the characters of his sitters.