Robert Gardelle

Robert Gardelle (6 April 1682 - 7 March 1766) was a Swiss artist, engraver and etcher 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. 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."