arme Jean-Antoine Julien, called Julien de
(Cavigliano 1736 - Paris 1799)
The Marriage of Alexander to Roxana
Biography
Jean-Antoine Julien, called Julien de Parme was a Swiss portrait painter.
He was the son of Giacono Ottolini and Lucia Bruzzetti. In his youth, Julien de Parme is taken by his mother to Craveggia. There he studied with Giuseppe Borgnis. In 1747 he moved to France, visiting Bourges, Diors, Châteauroux and Paris. He decided then to become a portrait painter.
Julien de Parme is registered in Rome in 1760 where he studied Antique art and the Italian masters. In 1761 Julien became a painter at the Parma court, working on historical and mythological paintings. His subjects and their iconography foreshadowed the subjects dear to Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) and the neo-Classicists.
In 1773 Julien is back in Paris, where he is called Julien de Parme. He lived out his last years in poverty.