Charles Le Brun (1619-90)

Contents

• Biography
• Training and Early Works
• Paintings and Designs
• Painter to the King
• Head of the French Academy
• Head of the Gobelins Tapestry Factory
• Decorative Art
• Legacy

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Biography

One of the most influential of Old Masters in France during the 17th century, the French painter, designer and art theorist Charles Le Brun is remembered principally for his dictatorial control of French painting during the reign of King Louis XIV (ruled 1643-1715), thanks to the influence of his patron Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Chief Minister to the King. Le Brun was also a founding member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture - later known as the French Academy of Fine Arts - which under his rule promulgated the key rules governing academic art, became a bastion of artistic orthodoxy and the leading art school in the country. The foundation for all this was his early success as one of the leading French Baroque artists, which established him as the leading decorative painter in the land. In the early 1660s he was appointed - along with France's greatest architects, like Louis le Vau and garden designer Andre le Notre - to oversee the designs at the Palace of Versailles, where he also painted several important murals. His best Baroque paintings include Hercules and the Horses of Diomedes (1640, Castle Museum, Nottingham), The Adoration of the Shepherds (1689, Louvre, Paris), Christ on the Cross (1637, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), The Sacrifice of Lephte (1656, Uffizi Gallery, Florence), The Portrait of Chancellor Seguier on Horseback (1655, Louvre) and The Tent of Darius (1661, Palace of Versailles).

Training and Early Works

The son of a sculptor, Le Brun absorbed the rudiments of painting from Francois Perrier at 12, and by the age of 16 he was a pupil of the court painter Simon Vouet (1590-1649), under whom he rapidly assimilated the various styles of the day, as revealed in his designs for engravings. An early protege of the French Chancellor Pierre Seguier (1588-1672), he also won a commission at the age of 20 from the hugely influential Cardinal Richelieu (Hercules and the Horses of Diomedes, 1640) and another from the Guild of Painters and Sculptors (The Martyrdom of St John the Evangelist (1642, , Church of St Nicolas du Chardonnet, Paris).

In 1642 he travelled to Rome in the company of the eminent French artist Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), who acted as his supervisor during his time in the city. He studied the works of classical antiquity, as well as the paintings of Raphael (1483-1520) and Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) as well as the decorative fresco painting and the awesome quadratura designs of Correggio (1489-1534) and Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669). At the same time he painted several works such as Horatius Cocles (Dulwich Art Gallery), Macius Scaevola (Macon Museum), and Dead Christ in the Lap of the Virgin (Louvre).

In contrast to the classical style of Charles Le Brun, see the realistic peasant scenes painted in France by the Le Nain Brothers, during the first half of the 17th century.

Paintings and Designs

Against the advice of Pierre Seguier he left Rome and, after a brief stay in Lyons where he probably painted The Death of Cato, (Arras Museum), he returned to Paris in 1646 where, still under the Chancellor's protection, he rapidly built up a number of important patrons. In the process he twice painted May offerings for Notre Dame (The Crucifixion of St Andrew, 1647; The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen, 1651).

Most of Le Brun's commissions under the Regency of Anne of Austria were either for religious paintings or for ceiling decorations. The former include Meal with Simon (Venice Academy), Christ Served by Angels (1653, Louvre) and Le Silence (1655, Louvre), distinguished by their calm dignity and the masterly way in which Le Brun captured expressions. Early decorations of the time include works for the Hotel de la Riviere (1653, Musee Carnavalet), Psyche Carried up to Heaven (Louvre, Petit Cabinet du Roi, now destroyed) and the Galerie d'Hercule at the Hotel Lambert, all of which are richly inventive and often coupled with relief stucco on the vault, but avoid excessive foreshortening. The Portrait of Chancellor Seguier on Horseback (Louvre), justifibly one of Le Brun's most popular works, also probably dates from this period (c.1655).

Le Brun's masterpiece of the period is undoubtedly the decoration of Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte for Nicolas Fouquet (1658-61). Here he was given the opportunity to display his talent in both buildings and gardens, painting walls and ceilings, designing sculpture and tapestries (which were made up at Maincy), as well as providing ideas for fetes and other events. (See also: Baroque Architecture.)

Painter to the King

At about this time Le Brun painted for Louis XIV The Tent of Darius (1660-1, Versailles), which served as a manifesto for academic art. A much admired oil painting, it was composed in the form of a frieze, sober and classical in style, in which the attitudes and facial expressions of the protagonists illustrate the action. The work proved so popular that Le Brun was appointed court painter, and in 1664 was confirmed as Painter to the King in 1664. For another favourite of Louis XIV, see Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) the painter of pomp.

Head of the French Academy

Previously (in 1648) Le Brun had been one of several painters who had petitioned the King to establish a French Academy (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture). Though established, it remained powerless due to opposition from the Guilds. However, in 1661, the Chief Minister Colbert - recognizing the political advantage of having an organization under his control which could impose artistic standards and glorify the King - gave the Academy exclusive control of the teaching of art as well as its public exhibition, and in 1663 he appointed Le Brun as the Academy's first Director. Thus began the official regulation of painting and sculpture - a system which spread eventually throughout Europe - which was outlined later by Andre Felibien, Secretary to the French Academy. To demonstrate Le Brun's notion that painting should appeal to the mind, rather than merely the eye, Felibien announced an official Hierarchy of the Genres as follows: (1) History Painting; (2) Portraits; (3) Genre Painting; (4) Landscapes; (5) Still Life.

Head of the Gobelins Tapestry Factory

Also in 1663, Le Brun took control of Tapestry art, when he was appointed Director of the famous Gobelins tapestry factory on the outskirts of Paris. (He had previously been the head of another royal tapestry works set up in 1658 at a chateau at Vaux-le-Vicomte.) In this role he supervised the training of the workmen, and the control he exercised over the production of furniture and tapestries contributed to the unity of the Louis XIV style throughout the royal residences. He produced cartoons for tapestries including The Four Elements and The Four Seasons, as well as for The Months of the Year (also known as The Royal Houses) and The History of the King.

The Tent of Darius was followed around 1673 by four further paintings inspired by the legend of Alexander; The Entry into Babylon, The Crossing of the Granicus, and The Battle of Arbela; other subjects were also sketched out. The immense canvases (Louvre) which served as cartoons for the Gobelins tapestries were later to take their place in a cycle of epic paintings and it is probably their format, and the impossibility of finding a suitable place to exhibit them, that prevented the finishing of the original project.

Decorative Art

The Galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre, intended as a more obvious glorification of Louis XIV, likewise remained unfinished when the King left Paris for the new palace of Versailles. Versailles, however, gave Le Brun the chance to demonstrate the ideals of his decorative art, as well as the full range of his mural painting technique and trompe l'oeil designs; the Staircase of the Ambassadors (1674-8, now destroyed), the Hall of Mirrors (1679-84; sketches in Auxerre, Troyes, Compiegne and Versailles museums), the Halls of Peace and War (1685-6) and his supervision of the decoration of the state rooms and the Chateau de Marly all embody an aesthetic that glorified absolutism - an example that was to be followed by the kings and courts of Europe.

For the extraordinary renaissance of the decorative arts in France during the Baroque/Rococo periods, see: French Decorative Art. For fine furnishings, see: French Furniture. For craftsmen and artists, see: French Designers.

After Louvois succeeded Colbert in 1683, Pierre Mignard (1612-95), Le Brun's rival, became the chief beneficiary of royal patronage from Louis XIV. Deprived of important commissions, Le Brun occupied the remaining years of his life with religious art, painting medium-sized works on Biblical themes such as the Passion of Christ (Louvre; Troyes and St Etienne museums); these mark a return to the tradition of Poussin and to the idea of meditation on a narrative theme.

Legacy

Le Brun introduced into France a style that owed much to Poussin's classicism and to Italian-style Baroque painting, and which could be adapted to the different requirements of ceiling paintings, tapestries or historical tableaux. His authoritarian control of visual art during his time in charge of the Academy, for which he has often been criticized, was the inevitable consequence of his sense of artistic superiority. The art of engraving served to make his work more widely known and his influence stretched well beyond the limits of his country and his epoch. In 1698, eight years after his death, his illustrated treatise How to Paint Emotions was published. It remained the standard textbook for art colleges until the mid-19th century. Due to his close association with the political absolutism of the Sun King Louis XIV, Le Brun's reputation faded with the rise of nationalism and democracy. In 1963, however, a major exhibition of his works at Versailles resulted in a positive reappraisal of his contribution to French art.

Paintings by Charles Le Brun can be seen in many of the best art museums throughout the world.

• For details of more 17th century French painters, see: Homepage.
• For an evaluation of important French Baroque pictures, see: Famous Paintings Analyzed.