Charles Le Brun

{"Id":4535,"Name":"Charles Le Brun","Biography":"\u003Cstrong\u003ECharles Le Brun (February 24, 1619 - February 22, 1690)\u003C/strong\u003E was a French painter and art theorist, one of the dominant artists in 17th century France.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EBorn in Paris, he attracted the notice of Chancellor S\u0026eacute;guier, who placed him at the age of eleven in the studio of \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2913\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESimon Vouet\u003C/a\u003E [1590-1649]. He was also a pupil of \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=4812\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EFran\u0026ccedil;ois Perrier\u003C/a\u003E [1600-1650]. At fifteen he received commissions from Cardinal Richelieu, in the execution of which he displayed an ability which obtained the generous commendations of \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=364\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ENicolas Poussin\u003C/a\u003E [1594-1665], in whose company Le Brun started for Rome in 1642.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIn Rome he remained four years in the receipt of a pension due to the liberality of the chancellor. There he worked under Nicolas Poussin, adapting the latter\u0027s theories of art.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EOn his return to Paris in 1646, Le Brun found numerous patrons, of whom Superintendent Fouquet was the most important. Employed at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Le Brun ingratiated himself with \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/image.asp?id=402\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMazarin\u003C/a\u003E, then secretly pitting Colbert against Fouquet. Colbert also promptly recognized Le Brun\u0027s powers of organization, and attached him to his interests. Together they founded the Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture, 1648), and the Academy of France at Rome (1666), and gave a new development to the industrial arts.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIn 1660 they established the Gobelins, which at first was a great school for the manufacture, not of tapestries only, but of every class of furniture required in the royal palaces. Commanding the industrial arts through the Gobelins - of which he was director - and the whole artist world through the Academy - in which he successively held every post - Le Brun imprinted his own character on all that was produced in France during his lifetime, and gave a direction to the national tendencies which endured after his death.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThe nature of his emphatic and pompous talent was in harmony with the taste of the king, who, full of admiration at the decorations designed by Le Brun for his triumphal entry into Paris (1660), commissioned him to execute a series of subjects from the history of Alexander. The first of these, \u003Cu\u003EAlexander and the Family of Darius\u003C/u\u003E, so delighted Louis XIV that he at once ennobled Le Brun (December, 1662), who was also created Premier Peintre du Roi (First Painter to His Majesty) with a pension of 12,000 livres, the same amount as he had yearly received in the service of the magnificent Fouquet.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EFrom this date all that was done in the royal palaces was directed by Le Brun. In 1663, he became director of the Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture, where he laid the basis of academicism and became the virtual dictator of the arts in France.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E The works of the gallery of Apollo in the Louvre were interrupted in 1677 when he accompanied the king to Flanders (on his return from Lille he painted several compositions in the Chateau of St Germains), and finally - for they remained unfinished at his death - by the vast labours of Versailles, where he reserved for himself the Halls of War and Peace (Salons de la Guerreand de la Paix, 1686), the Ambassadors\u0027 Staircase, and the Great Gallery (Galerie des Glaces, 1679\u0026ndash;1684), other artists being forced to accept the position of his assistants.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EAt the death of Colbert, Fran\u0026ccedil;ois-Michel le Tellier, who succeeded him in the department of public works, showed no favour to Le Brun, and in spite of the king\u0027s continued support he felt a bitter change in his position. This contributed to the illness which on February 22, 1690 ended in his death in the Gobelins, in Paris.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ELe Brun primarily worked for King Louis XIV, for whom he executed large altarpieces and battle pieces. His most important paintings are at Versailles. Besides his gigantic labours at Versailles and the Louvre, the number of his works for religious corporations and private patrons is enormous. Le Brun was also a fine portraitist and an excellent draughtsman. He modelled and engraved with much facility, and, in spite of the heaviness and poverty of drawing and colour, his extraordinary activity and the vigour of his conceptions justify his claim to fame. Nearly all his compositions have been reproduced by celebrated engravers.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIn his posthumously published treatise, \u003Cu\u003EM\u0026eacute;thode pour apprendre \u0026agrave; dessiner les passions\u003C/u\u003E (1698) he promoted the expression of the emotions in painting. It had much influence on 18th-century art theory.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EMany of his drawings are in the Louvre.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cu\u003ESource:\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cli tye=\u0022square\u0022\u003EEntry on the artist in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Le_Brun\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EWikipedia\u003C/a\u003E.\u003C/li\u003E\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":true,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":false,"HasLetters":false,"HasLibraryItems":false,"HasProducts":false,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":12}