Jacques de Lajoue

1686 – 1761

French painter, the son of the architect and master mason Jacques de La Joue and Marguerite Cannaban. He was accepted by the Académie Royale as an architectural painter on 26 April 1721 and he continued to take part in its exhibitions until 1753. He exhibited at the Place Dauphine in 1721 and his success never seems to have waned from this date onwards. He obtained work in several decorative projects in royal palaces and buildings. In 1732, he won great acclaim with a View of the Bibliothèque Ste-Geneviève. From 1730 to 1739, he provided drawings to Charles Nicolas Cochin II to be used for engravings. Lajoue was patronised, in particular, by Mme de Pompadour. He was also a close friend of Nicolas Cochin, de Troy, Lemoyne and Coustou the Elder. Lajoue was one of a group of masters who, during the last years of Louis XIV's reign, reacted against the conventional austerity and heaviness of form that characterised the art of the 17th century. Gillot, Watteau, Aurèle Meissonnier and Gilles-Marie Oppenoord were friends of his. Alongside them he provided work for Gabriel Huquier to engrave. Huquier rendered 39 drawings by Lajoue - of ornaments, trophies, griffins and architectural monuments. It was through his influence that the taste for rocaille developed.

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