Louis Laguerre

Who was Louis Laguerre?

Louis Laguerre, was a French decorative painter mainly working in England.

Born in Versailles in 1663 and trained at the Paris Academy under Charles Le Brun, he came to England in 1683, where he first worked with Antonio Verrio, and then on his own. He rivalled with Sir James Thornhill in the field of history painting, primarily decorating the great houses of the nobility. His wall paintings can be found in Blenheim Palace, Marlborough House, Petworth House, Burghley House Fetcham Park House and Chatsworth House. In the 1980s, a restoration project revealed work by Laguerre at Frogmore House also. His subject matter included English victories over the armies of Louis XIV.

Laguerre painted religious subjects at St Lawrence's Church, Whitchurch, London. In 1731 Alexander Pope wrote,

On painted ceilings you devoutly stare

Where sprawl the saints of Verrio or Laguerre...

which was taken by some contemporaries to be a reference to Laguerre's work for James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos at this church and the nearby Cannons House.

Laguerre was also a director of Godfrey Kneller's London Academy of Drawing and Painting, founded in the autumn of 1711. He died in London on April 20, 1721.