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 …
Tag: French Baroque painting
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 …
Saint Augustine
PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAIGNE (1602-1674) Saint Augustine (c.1645-50) Oil on canvas (79 x 62 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art To enlarge the image, right-click on it, then "Open in a new tab" The text reproduced below is the entry written by the great British art historian Philip Conisbee (1946-2008) for the catalogue of the exhibition …
Prince Henry Benedict Stuart
LOUIS GABRIEL BLANCHET (1705-1772) Prince Henry Benedict Stuart (c.1739) Oil on canvas (98 x 73 cm) Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Royal Collection To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "open in a new tab" This beautiful portrait and its pair, the one of his older brother Prince Charles Edward Stuart, are arguably Blanchet's most …
Prince Charles Edward Stuart
LOUIS GABRIEL BLANCHET (1705-1772) Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1737-38) Oil on canvas (98 x 75.5 cm) Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Royal Collection To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" Very little is known about Louis Gabriel Blanchet, a gifted portraitist who spent his professional career in Rome. He was …
The Penitent Magdalen
GEORGES DE LA TOUR (1593-1652) The Penitent Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (c.1638-40) Oil on canvas (117 x 92 cm) Los Angeles County Museum of Art To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" Georges de La Tour was the greatest tenebrist painter working in 17th-century France. Indeed since his …
The Musicians’ Brawl
GEORGES DE LA TOUR (1593-1652) The Musicians' Brawl (c. 1625-30) Oil on canvas (86 x 141 cm) Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" Born in Lorraine, a place where the Nordic, French and Italian cultures meet; a contemporary of Jacques Callot (1592-1635) and …
An Officer and a Gentleman
NICOLAS DE LARGILLIERE (1656-1746) Portrait of an Officier, c. 1715 Oil on canvas (66 x 55 cm) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" Unjustly neglected by art historians, particularly the Anglo-Americans, in favour of his contemporary and rival Hyacinthe Rigaud …
The Virgin and Child
SIMON VOUET (1590-1649) The Madonna Adoring the Christ Child (1623-26) Oil on canvas 118 x 132 cm Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" Simon Vouet is one of the most important French painters of the 19th century. His father Laurent, a painter himself, taught …
The Abduction of Europa
CLAUDE LORRAIN (1600-1682) Landscape with the Abduction of Europa (1647) Oil on canvas: 96 x 167 cm Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" This painting is usually called "The Rape of Europa"; however, since the word rape in the English language has …
Old Masters 