Joseph-Benoit Suvée began his studies at the age of eight at the Koninklijke Academie (Royal Academy) of Bruges. In 1761 he was awarded the academy’s first prize in drawing, and in 1763 he again received first prize in drawing as well as first prize for architecture. Arriving in Paris in 1763, Suvée entered the Académie de St. Luc; the following year he enrolled at the Académie Royale as a student of Jean-Jacques Bachelier. In 1766, the year after it was founded by Bachelier, Suvée was appointed professor of the École Gratuite de Dessin. After two unsuccessful attempts, he won the Prix de Rome in 1771, surpassing Jacques-Louis David, who took second. To qualify for financial support from the French government to study at the Académie Française in Rome, Suvée’s birthplace was changed in the official minutes of the Académie Royale from Bruges to Armentières, in the French Netherlands. While in Rome from late 1772 until 1778, Suvée, like many of his peers, was interested in antiquities and made numerous copies of works by Italian Renaissance and Baroque masters, including Raphael’s tapestries and paintings by Guido Reni and Domenichino. He also executed red-chalk drawings of Roman ruins and the Campagna. Suvée returned to Paris in 1778 and was accepted as an associate of the Salon in 1779 and as a full member in 1780. He exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1779 until 1796. In 1792 he was appointed director of the Académie Française in Rome, but the position was immediately abolished on the recommendation of David. Only in 1801, after the Revolutionary turmoil that caused Suvée to be jailed for a time subsided, would Suvée assume his functions in Rome. Among his activities, he transferred the Académie Française to its present location, the Villa Medici. Suvée’s oeuvre includes official commissions for Louis XVI, cartoons for the Gobelins tapestry manufactory, important religious paintings, and some portraits.