Charles lebrun
Charles Le Brun (Paris, February 24, 1619 — February 22, 1690) was a French painter and art theorist, one of the dominant artists in 18th-century France. ="font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase">XVII.
Biography
Born in Paris, he caught the attention of Chancellor Séguier, who placed him in Simon Vouet's workshop when he was barely eleven years old. At fifteen he already received commissions from Cardinal Richelieu, in the execution of which he showed such skill that he earned generous praise from Nicolas Poussin. He later went to Rome, the city where he stayed between 1642 and 1646. He knew the work of Raphael, and followed Guido Reni and the teachers of the Bolognese School. There he lived thanks to a pension from the chancellor. He was a disciple of Poussin in Rome, whose artistic theories he adopted and which greatly influenced his work.
Back in Paris, he was under the protection of Cardinal Richelieu. With Philippe de Champaigne, he obtained from the king the foundation of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture ( Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture ) in the year 1648. Other co-founders of the institution were Sébastien Bourdon and Laurent de The Hyre.
Of his numerous patrons, the king's superintendent of finances, Nicolás Fouquet, was the most important; Fouquet commissioned him to decorate the Palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte (1656-1661). From his first period, his most important work is the decoration of the Palace of Cardinal Richelieu, now lost.
Between 1650 and 1660 Le Brun reached his stylistic maturity, painting with a classical and elegant style, whose best works are: La Magdalena, Christ in the desert and the Crucifixion, as well as the decorative cycles of the Hôtel Lambert, the castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte, the Tuileries and above all Versailles.
Back then, Mazarin was secretly pitting Colbert against Fouquet. After Fouquet's fall in 1661, Jean-Baptiste Colbert took over the king's finances. Colbert quickly recognized Le Brun's organizational power, and linked him to his interests.
The nature of his emphatic and pompous talent was in keeping with the taste of the King, who, full of admiration for Le Brun's paintings for his triumphant entry into Paris in 1660 and his decorations in the Palace of Vaux-le- Vicomte (1661), commissioned him to execute a series on themes from the history of Alexander. The first painting, Alexander and the family of Darius, pleased Louis XIV so much that he ennobled Le Brun (December 1662), whom he also named Premier Peintre du Roi (First Painter to the King) in 1664 with a pension of 12,000 livres, the same amount he had received annually in the service of the magnificent Fouquet. The king had considered him "the greatest French artist of all time". In the series on the Battles of Alexander the Great Le Brun did not miss the opportunity to highlight the connection between the magnificence of Alexander and that of the great Sun King. While working on the Battles Le Brun's style became more personal, revealing his essence as he moved away from the old masters who influenced him.
He also stands out as a magnificent portrait painter, with works such as The Chancellor Séguier and Louis XIV Adoring the Risen Christ.
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Le Brun, with Colbert, promoted a new development of the industrial arts. In 1660 he had contributed to the creation of the Manufactory of the Gobelins (Manufacture des Gobelins). From 1663 he also acted as director of the manufacture. At first they were dedicated not only to tapestries, but to all types of furniture required for royal palaces, including mirrors and porcelain. Commanding the industrial arts through the Gobelins, of which he was director, and the entire artistic world through the Academy, where he held various posts, Le Brun infused his own character into everything produced in France. during his lifetime, and was the creator of the Louis XIV Style. He gave national tendencies a direction that lasted for centuries to come.
From this date, everything that was done in the royal palaces was directed by Le Brun. In 1663, he was appointed director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture by Colbert, where he established the foundations of academicism, being the undisputed and most powerful master of French art of the XVII. In 1666 he founded the Academy of France in Rome, of which he was appointed director.
Work in the Apollo gallery at the Louvre was interrupted in 1677 when Le Brun accompanied the king to Flanders; on his return from Lille he painted several pictures at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Le Brun's great work was the interior decoration of the Palace of Versailles, which remained unfinished after his death. He had dozens of artists and craftsmen under his orders. The War and Peace Rooms (Salons de la Guerre and de la Paix, 1686), the Ambassadors Staircase, and the Great Hall of Mirrors were reserved. (Galerie des Glaces), 1679-84, the work of Le Brun and Jules Hardouin-Mansart). Le Brun's décor is not just a work of art: it is the ultimate monument to a reign.
On Colbert's death, he was succeeded by his enemy François Michel Le Tellier de Louvois, Marquis de Louvois as superintendent in the public works department. Louvais did not show any favor to Le Brun, Colbert's favourite, and despite the king's continued support, Le Brun felt a bitter change in his position. This contributed to the illness which resulted in his death in Paris on February 22, 1690 in his private mansion. He was buried in the church of Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet, in Paris.
Legacy
Charles Le Brun became the main interpreter of the splendor and political prestige of the France of Louis XIV. For this reason he was despised by the Romantic painters of the XIX century and little known by the general public. It has been pointed out by some historians that Le Brun was a despot who used his power to exercise artistic tyranny over the XVII century , which is disputed by others.
Le Brun worked primarily for King Louis XIV, for whom he made large altarpieces and battle paintings. The most important paintings of him are in Versailles (wall paintings on the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors) and in the Louvre (decoration on the ceiling of the Hall of Apollo).
In addition, the decoration of the palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte stands out: the king's chamber Le temps enlevant au Ciel la Vérité; and the dome of the pavilion of the Aurora in the palace of Sceaux.
The number of works he did for religious corporations and private patrons is enormous. Le Brun was also a good portrait painter and an excellent draftsman. But he did not particularly like portraiture or landscape painting, which seemed to him mere exercises to develop his technical mastery. What mattered to him was a studied composition, whose ultimate purpose was to feed the spirit. The fundamental basis on which the director of the Academy based his art was unquestionably making his painting speak, through a series of symbols, clothing and gestures that allowed him to subtly add to his compositions the narrative elements that endowed his works with a particular depth. For Le Brun, a painting represented a story that one could read. Almost all of his compositions have been reproduced by celebrated engravers.
His most outstanding paintings are: The Dream of the Child Jesus and The Chancellor Séguier (and his entourage), both in the Louvre Museum, as well as the canvases with the History of Alexander the Great.
In his posthumously published treatise, Méthode pour apprendre à dessiner les passions (1698) he promoted the expression of emotions in painting. He greatly influenced art theory for the next two centuries.
Many of his drawings are in the Louvre and in the royal collection of Monaco.
Among the dozens of people who worked under him at one time or another, it is worth noting: Claude I Audran, Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne, Charles de la Fosse, René-Antoine Houasse, Jean Jouvenet and Hyacinthe Rigaud.
In Spain, a work is conserved, Cristo muerto llorado por dos ángeles, belonging to the royal collections of National Heritage. Likewise, in the Museo del Prado there is a small work of one disciple of the painter, called The Triumph of Caesar.