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Perronneau studied engraving with Laurent Cars and then painting with Natoire. He was accepted by the Académie Royale in 1746 and became a full member 1753. But his rivalry with the pastellist Quentin de La Tour led him to seek a clientele outside Paris, especially it seems in Orléans. He painted mostly the senior officials, and the upper bourgeoisie, engineers, doctors and clergy. On the other hand he seems to have been particularly favoured and respected by his own colleagues, and painted portraits of Gilequian, Drouais and Oudry and of the engravers Cars and Huquier, the sculptor Adam the elder, the architects Chevotet and Soyer. His strong firm almost coarse (and maybe rather less flattering) style may have been appreciated better by these connoisseurs than the slightly slicker and more perfectionist style of La Tour, who seems to have gone out of his way to sabotage the career of this younger artist.
There is a group of thirteen portraits in the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, among them the portrait of Daniel Jousse (1704-1781), a famous legal expert who published about twenty volumes on criminal law.
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