Born in Poitiers in 1762, Louis Gauffier relocated at an early age to Paris, where he studied the style of Poussin under the tutelage of Hughes Taraval. When he was just twenty-two years old, Gauffier won the Prix de Rome and entered the École des Beaux-Arts in the Italian capital. He would remain in Italy for the rest of his career, save for a brief return to Paris in 1789 cut short by the outbreak of the Revolution.

In 1793, Gauffier moved with his wife to Florence, where he joined a group of French emigré painters - including François-Xavier Fabre, who had been a close friend in Rome - and occupied himself as a society portraitist, painting mostly important military and diplomatic sitters sta...