Robert Gardelle (Geneva, 6 April 1682 - Geneva, 7 March 1766) was an 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]
^In the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland he is described as having been born in Geneva, but being from 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.
^Leigh, R. A. (1978). Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778: catalogue of an exhibition at Cambridge University Library July-September, 1978. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN978-0-902205-31-4.