Jacques Rousseau

Jacques Rousseau (4 June 1630 – 16 December 1693) was a French painter.

Biography A member of a Huguenot family, Rousseau was born at Paris.

He was noted as a painter of trompe-l'œil, decorative landscapes and classic ruins, somewhat in the style of Canaletto, but without his delicacy of touch; he appears also to have been influenced by Nicolas Poussin and Gaspard Dughet.

While young Rousseau went to Rome, where he spent some years in painting the ancient ruins, together with the surrounding landscapes. He thus formed his style, which was artificial and conventionally decorative. His colouring for the most part is unpleasing, partly owing to his violent treatment of skies with crude blues and orange, and his chiaroscuro usually is much exaggerated. On his return to Paris he soon became distinguished as a painter, and was employed to decorate walls at the Hôtel Lambert and for Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orleans, at the Château de Saint-Cloud, Palace of Versailles, Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Château de Marly and other locations (all destroyed except two at Versailles).