Pierre Subleyras was an Eighteenth Century French artist who moved to Italy after winning fame in his native country. He left France for Italy in 1728, having carried off the Grand Prix. In Italy he painted for the Canons of Asti Christ's Visit to the House of Simon the Pharisee (Louvre, engraved by Subleyras himself), a large work, which made his reputation and procured his admission into the Academy of St Luke.

Cardinal Valenti Gonzaga next obtained for him the order for Saint Basil and the Emperor Valens (small study in Louvre), which was executed in mosaic for St Peter's. Pope Benedict XIV and all the princes of Rome sat for him. The pope himself commanded two great paintings, the Marriage of St. Catherine and the Ecstasy of St. Camilla, which he placed in his own private apartments.

Charon

Above, Charon: I have fine art posters and prints of this painting available for purchase.Pierre Subleyras shows greater individuality in his curious genre pictures, which he produced in considerable number and which are now housed in the Louvre.

Subleyras's drawings from nature are often admirable (see one of a man draped in a heavy cloak in the British Museum). Exhausted by overwork, Subleyras tried a change to Naples, but returned to Rome at the end of a few months to die. His wife, the celebrated miniature painter, Maria Felice Tibaldi, was sister to the wife of Tremollière.