Robert Gardelle Explained

Robert Gardelle (Geneva, 6 April 1682 - Geneva, 7 March 1766) was a Swiss artist, engraver and etcher^[1] born in Geneva, then in the Republic of Geneva. He studied under Largillière in Paris, where he distinguished himself as a portrait painter, producing also etchings of portraits and of views of Geneva.^[2] Gardelle is known for both the quantity of portraits he produced and the speed with which he produced them; Cambridge University Library noted during a 1978 exhibition that Gardelle was prolific and "often painted portraits in two or three days."^[3]

Further reading

• Dagmar Böcker: Gardelle, Robert. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz
• Auguste Bouvier: Quatre vues de Genève peintes par Robert Gardelle, Genève 1931
• Waldemar Deonna: Le peintre Robert Gardelle 1682-1766. Impr. du "Journal de Genève", 1943

Notes and References

1. In the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland he is described as having been born in Geneva, but being Lyon, thus French. There is no indication there that he became a citizen of the Republic of Geneva, and a fortiori that he ever became Swiss. In some recent databases such as ULAN though, he is sometimes referred to as being Swiss.
2. Michael Bryan, Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers: Volume 2, D-G. Robert Edmund Graves and Walter Armstrong, eds. New York: Macmillan, 1903; pg. 215.
3. Book: Leigh. R. A.. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778: catalogue of an exhibition at Cambridge University Library July-September, 1978. 1978. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-902205-31-4. 19.