Born in Sceaux, near Paris, Louis de Silvestre was an esteemed French portraitist and history painter. The son of the King’s engraver, Israël Silvestre, he trained under the leading painters Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) and Bon Boullogne (1649-1717) before travelling to Rome, where he studied with Carlo Maratta (1625-1713). Upon his return to Paris, Silvestre was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1702 and became a professor four years later.
After meeting Friedrich Augustus II, later King Augustus III of Poland, Silvestre was invited to Dresden to serve as Premier Peintre du Roi de Pologne et de Saxe under August II (Augustus the Strong). He departed Paris with royal permission in 1716 and soon became one of the most influential artists at the Saxon-Polish court. In Dresden, he produced numerous portraits of the royal family and nobility, working among a circle of French artists brought to enhance the splendour of Augustus’s court. His style - poised between the grandeur of French classicism and the refinement of early Rococo - played a formative role in shaping 18th-century Dresden’s artistic identity.
Silvestre’s designs also influenced other media, including Meissen porcelain, whose modellers occasionally drew upon his portraits and mythological compositions. Appointed Director of the Dresden Academy (Kunstakademie) in 1727 and later ennobled by Augustus III in 1741, he remained in Saxony for over thirty years before returning to Paris in his final decade. There, he served as Director of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and occupied apartments in the Palais du Louvre, where he died in 1760.
Silvestre often worked on a heroic scale, his paintings distinguished by clarity of design, sculptural modelling, and a vivid sense of presence. Alongside his celebrated portraits of Augustus II and the Dresden court, he executed religious and mythological works, including the frescoes in Dresden Castle illustrating scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
His work is represented in major public collections, including the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Galleries of Scotland, and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
Known For
Court portraits (notably Augustus II of Poland and members of the Saxon court), history painting, and mythological scenes.
Student Of
Israël Silvestre, Charles Le Brun, Bon Boullogne, and Carlo Maratta.
Lived In
Paris, Rome, and Dresden.
Public Collections
The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Galleries of Scotland, and The Fitzwilliam Museum.
Sold Through
Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Hampel Fine Art Auctions.
Timeline
1675
Born in Sceaux (near Paris) to Israël Silvestre and Henriette Sélincart.
1693
Worked in Rome under Carlo Maratta.
1702
Admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Paris.
1706
Appointed professor at the Académie.
1716
Departed for Dresden to serve Augustus II of Poland and Saxony.
1727
Appointed Director of the Kunstakademie, Dresden.
1737
Painted a portrait of King Augustus III.
1741
Ennobled by Augustus III.
1757
Completed The Closing of the Temple of Janus by Augustus.
1760
Died in Paris.