A Life Cut Short by Chance François van Loo possessed a talent that was recognized by the most influential circles of the eighteenth century, yet his career remains a fragment of what it might have been. Born in Aix-en-Provence, he was part of a formidable artistic lineage, the son of Jean-Baptiste van Loo and the brother of Louis-Michel and Charles Amédée Philippe van Loo. His training was not a matter of mere study but a direct inhe…