The son of a painter and art dealer, Jacques Oudry, he trained under Nicolas de Largillierre and was admitted
to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1719; he taught there from 1743. His early works are
portraits, but he went on to paint and engrave a large range of subjects, most notably becoming the leading
European animal painter of his day. From 1726 he began to design tapestries and had great influence on
French Rococo decorative arts in his roles as director of the Beauvais tapestry manufactory and of the Gobelins
manufactory. His son, Jacques-Charles Oudry, was also a painter.