Jean-Jacques François Le Barbier, The Elder (Rouen 1738 - Paris 1826)

The Nativity

Pen, black ink and watercolor

14 3/8 x 10 1/4 (36.5 x  26 cm)

Signed lower left "Le Barbier l'aine et date de 1791"

Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier was  a Neoclassical painter, illustrator and writer.
He began his studies in Rouen and, at 17, won first prize for drawing at the city’s Académie. Shortly afterwards he travelled to Paris, entering the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture as a student of Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre. In 1767–1768 he was in Rome and in Switzerland by 1776. In 1780, having returned to France, he was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale and received (reçu) in 1785 with Jupiter.