Louis Galloche was bound for the priesthood before deciding on his vocation as an artist, studying with Louis de Boullogne the younger, the director of the Académie Royale and First Painter to the King. Though Galloche won the Prix de Rome, a lack of funding from the king prevented him from an education at the Académie de France. Determined to experience classical and Renaissance art in Italy, Galloche traveled to Rome at his own expense, returning to Paris to establish his career as a painter and teacher. He recommended that his students intensely study, and carefully copy, the works of Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck and, above all, Correggio.