FRENCH SCHOOL Portrait of Gabriel de Rochechouart, Duke of Mortemart Oil on canvas (182 x 97 cm) Chateau de Versailles To enlarge the picture, right-click on it, then "Open in a new tab" The sitter has been identified by comparing this portrait with a drawing in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Gabriel de Rochechuart (1600-75) began his career …
Category: French Artists
A French Hero
CHARLES LEBRUN (1619-1690) Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne Oil on canvas (67 x 52 cm) Chateau de Versailles To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" This Portrait of Turenne, with its stunning sense of presence and truth, is not a finished work, but a study for …
Portrait of an Architect
PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAIGNE (1602-1674) Portrait of Jacques Lemercier (1644) Oil on canvas (97 x 75 cm) Chateau de Versailles Following a visit to Rome in 1607, Jacques Lemercier (1585-1654) rapidly became one of the most reputed architects in Paris. It was not long before Richelieu engaged him, entrusting him with his main building projects, the most …
My Father-in-Law
FRANCOIS TORTEBAT (1621-1690) Portrait of Simon Vouet (1665) Oil on canvas (63 x 52 cm) Chateau de Versailles Quite unlike the many dazzling portraits of worthies shown to their best advantage by flattering regalia, the artist eliminated every single superfluous feature here, in order to concentrate on the sitter's almost hypnotic stare. Using thick paint, he scrupulously described …
Flowers and Silver
MEIFFREM COMTE (1630-1705) Still Life with a Candelabra and Ewers Oil on canvas (85 x 105 cm) Musee de Versailles We know very little about Meiffrem Comte. After training locally in his hometown of Marseilles, he worked both in Aix-en-Provence, where he was affiliated to the Guild of St. Luke, and Marseilles. He would appear …
The Wood Nymph
JEAN RANC (1674-1735) Vertumnus and Pomona (c. 1710-1720) Oil on canvas (171 x 119 cm) Musée Fabre, Montpellier To enlarge the image, right-click on it, then "Open in a new tab" Jean Ranc was initially trained by his father, Antoine, a Montpellier portraitist with a good reputation, and then by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) in Paris, …
Madame Crozat
JACQUES-ANDRE-JOSEPH AVED (1702-1766) Portrait of Madame Crozat (1741) Oil on canvas (138 x 100 cm) Musée Fabre, Montpellier To enlarge the image, right-click on it, the "Open in a new tab" Aved was one of the greatest French portraitists of the mid-18th century, ranking with Louis Tocqué (1696-1772), Jean-Marc Nattier (1685-1766), Hubert Drouais (1699-1766), Maurice …
Bacchus and Ariadne
JEAN-FRANCOIS DE TROY (1679-1752) Bacchus and Ariadne (1725) Oil on canvas (163 x 130 cm) Musée Fabre, Montpellier To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" Jean-Francois de Troy, the most important and gifted member of a family of painters from Toulouse, was taught by his father, Francois de Troy …
Saint Sebastian
FRANCOIS-XAVIER FABRE (1766-1837) The Dying Saint Sebastian (1789) Oil on canvas (196 x 147 cm) Musée Fabre, Montpellier To enlarge the image, right-click on it and then "Open in a new tab" Born in Montpellier on 1 April 1766, Fabre was one of the first students to benefit from the education provided by Montpellier's Societe …
A Masterpiece
NICOLAS DE LARGILLIERE (1656-1746) Self-Portrait (c. 1726) Oil on canvas (80 x 64 cm) Musée Fabre, Montpellier To enlarge the picture; right-click on it, then "Open in a new tab" Largillière, a Parisian educated in Antwerp showed at an early age great aptitudes for painting and was apprenticed to Antoine Goubau (1616-1698). He became a …
Old Masters 