Luigi Aloys-François-Joseph Loir, dit Luigi Loir was born December 22, 1845 in Goritz, Austria and he died February 9, 1916 in Paris.
Luigi’s parents were of French origins, but his family lived in Austria as employees of the French royal family, the Bourbons - his father was a valet while his mother was a governess.
In his catalogue raisonnée on Luigi Loir, Noé Willer explains how "since the French Revolution, Gorritz (which was known as ‘the Austrian Nice’) was a refuge for royalists and particularly the Bourbon branch of the family".
The earliest years of Luigi’s life, then, were spent in the Gorritz castle, but shortly after his birth, the Loir family relocated, along with the Bourbon family, to the Duchy of Parma, around 1847.