French Artists

French Artists
  • Paul Cézanne
  • Gustave Courbet
  • Jacques-Louis David
  • Edgar Degas
  • Eugène Delacroix
  • Paul Gauguin
  • Claude Monet
  • Auguste Renoir
  • Nicolas Poussin
  • Henri Matisse
  • Antoine Watteau
  • Jean-François Millet
  • Charles Le Brun
  • Jean Fouquet

Charles Le Brun (1619 - 1690)

A French painter of Baroque times, Le Brun was born into a family of artists. He studied in Paris first and later trained under Poussin in Rome. Returning to work in Paris in 1646, he began developing a classical style in his work, incorporating typical elements of the Baroque period, such as drama, naturalism and decoration.

Le Brun helped found the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648 and also painted great frescoes in chateaux such as Vaux-le-Vicomte and Sceaux, as well as in the Louvre.

One of his paintings won him particular favour with the French King, Louis XIV, who made him the first royal painter and made him a noble in 1662. Le Brun became very busy from then on, directing the royal Gobelins factory of tapestry and furniture, directing decoration in the Palace of Versailles and also making designs for landscaping the gardens.