This is one of eight stamps printed on the same sheet and honoring the 100th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union. Letter-writing themes were selected from major pieces of art.

Jean-Étienne Liotard’s father was a jeweler who fled to Switzerland after 1685. Liotard was born in Geneva and began his studies under Professors Gardelle and Petitot, whose enamels and miniatures he copied with considerable skill. He went to Paris in 1725, studying under Jean-Baptiste Massé and François Lemoyne, on whose recommendation he was taken to Naples by the Marquis Puysieux.

In 1735 he was in Rome, painting the portraits of Pope Clement XII and several cardinals. Three years later he accompanied Lord Duncannon to Constantinople. His eccentric adoption of oriental costume secured him the nickname of the Turkish painter. He went to Vienna in 1742 to paint the portraits of the imperial family. In 1745 he sold La belle chocolatière to Francesco Algarotti.

Still under distinguished patronage, he returned to Paris. In 1753, he visited England, where he painted the princess of Wales. He went to Holland in 1756, where, in the following year, he married Marie Fargues. She also came from a Hugenot family, and wanted him to shave off his beard.

In 1762, he painted portraits in Vienna. Another visit to England followed in 1772, and in the next two years his name figures among the Royal Academy exhibitors. He returned to his native town in 1776. In 1781, Liotard published his Traité des principes et des règles de la peinture. In his last days he painted still lifes and landscapes. He died at Geneva in 1789.