A pupil of his elder brother, Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, called Lagrenée l’aîné (who was sixteen years older), Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (also known as ‘Lagrenée the Younger’) studied at the Ecole des Elèves Protégés and earned a second-place prize in the Prix de Rome* competition of 1760. The same year he accompanied his brother to Saint Petersburg, where Louis had been appointed painter to the Empress Catherine the Great. The two brothers remained in Russia until 1762, when they returned to Paris.

In 1765 Jean-Jacques left for Rome, where he was able to study at the Académie de France, although not officially as a pensionnaire. It was in Rome, where he lived until 1769, that the young Lagrenée developed a particular love of classic...