Louis Caravaque came from the third generation of a dynasty of painters and carvers. In 1715 he signed a contract in Paris with P. Lefort who represented Peter I in accordance with which, he was "to serve His Royal Majesty for three years painting in oil, historical pictures, portraits, battle scenes, forests, villages, flowers, animals and also miniature portraits and historical scenes" and also "to employ into his service Russian people directed to him by His Majesty for study and instruction in all pertaining to fine art". Caravaque arrived in Russia in 1716 to serve in the Building Office. He painted more than once, from life, the portraits of Peter I and Catherine I, their children and grandchildren and later the empresses Anna Ioannovna (Portrait of Empress Anna Ioannovna, 1730) and Elizaveta Petrovna. Caravaque took part in preparing the coronation festivities of Anna Ioannovna and Elizaveta Petrovna. Among the foreign artists who worked in Russia under Peter I, Caravaque had the closest ties with Russian culture. He came from France as a rococo master, but under the impact of Russian tastes he tended in his late years towards the heavy, opulent and ostentatious baroque style of Anna’s period. Under Anna Ioannovna Caravaque became her court painter. His artistic activities were many and versatile: as required by court life, he designed interiors, fancy-dress balls, fireworks, Anna Ioannovna’ robes, as her fashion designer and painted, by contemporary evidence, "so many large and small portraits of this empress that all the walls in Petersburg were covered with them". Caravaque also kept his high court position under Elizaveta Petrovna. His teaching activities under Peter I and later still, played an important role in training Russian artists.