Artist analysis
Charles Le Brun, portrait by Nicolas de Largilliere
Born
24 February 1619
Paris
Died
22 February 1690
Paris
Charles Le Brun (24 February 1619 – 22 February 1690) was a French painter and art theorist.
Declared by Louis XIV "the greatest French artist of all time", he was a dominant figure in 17thcentury French art.
Contents
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1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life and training
o 1.2 Success years
o 1.3 Later years
2 Le Brun's work and legacy
3 Partial anthology of works
4 Gallery
5 References and sources
Biography[edit]
Portrait of Nicolas Le Brun by Charles Le Brun, ca. 1635, Residenzgalerie, Salzburg
Early life and training[edit]
Born in Paris, he attracted the notice of Chancellor Séguier, who placed him at the age of eleven
in the studio of Simon Vouet. He was also a pupil of François Perrier. At fifteen he received
commissions from Cardinal Richelieu, in the execution of which he displayed an ability which
obtained the generous commendations of Nicolas Poussin, in whose company Le Brun started for
Rome in 1642.
In Rome he remained four years in the receipt of a pension due to the liberality of the chancellor.
There he worked under Poussin, adapting the latter's theories of art.
On his return to Paris in 1646, Le Brun found numerous patrons, of whom Superintendent
Fouquet was the most important, for whom he painted a large portrait of Anne of Austria.[1]
Employed at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Le Brun ingratiated himself with Mazarin, then secretly pitting
Colbert against Fouquet. Colbert also promptly recognized Le Brun's powers of organization,
and attached him to his interests. Together they took control of the Academy of Painting and
Sculpture (Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, 1648), and the Academy of France at
Rome (1666), and gave a new development to the industrial arts.
Venus Clipping Cupid’s Wings, ca. 1655, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Another project Le Brun worked on was Hôtel Lambert. The ceiling in the gallery of Hercules
was painted by him. Le Brun started work on the project in 1650, shortly after his return from
Italy. The decoration continued intermittently over twelve years or so, as it was interrupted by
the renovation of Vaux le Vicomte.
In 1660 they established the Gobelins, which at first was a great school for the manufacture, not
of tapestries only, but of every class of furniture required in the royal palaces. Commanding the
industrial arts through the Gobelins—of which he was director—and the whole artistic world
through the Academy—in which he successively held every post—Le Brun imprinted his own
character on all that was produced in France during his lifetime. He was the originator of Louis
XIV Style and gave a direction to the national tendencies which endured centuries after his death.
Success years[edit]
The nature of his emphatic and pompous talent was in harmony with the taste of the king, who,
full of admiration of the paintings by Le Brun for his triumphal entry into Paris (1660) and his
decorations at the Château Vaux le Vicomte (1661), commissioned him to execute a series of
subjects from the history of Alexander. The first of these, "Alexander and the Family of Darius,"
so delighted Louis XIV that he at once ennobled Le Brun (December, 1662), who was also
created Premier Peintre du Roi (First Painter to His Majesty) with a pension of 12,000 livres,
the same amount as he had yearly received in the service of the magnificent Fouquet. The King
had declared him "the greatest French artist of all time".
From this date all that was done in the royal palaces was directed by Le Brun. In 1663,[2] he
became director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, where he laid the basis of
academicism and became the all-powerful, peerless master of 17th-century French art. It was
during this period that he dedicated a series of works to the history of Alexander The Great (The
Battles of Alexander The Great), and he did not miss the opportunity to make a stronger
connection between the magnificence of Alexander and that of the great King. While he was
working on The Battles, Le Brun's style became much more personal as he moved away from the
ancient masters that influenced him.
Alexander and Porus, painted 1673
The works of the gallery of Apollo in the Louvre were interrupted in 1677 when he accompanied
the king to Flanders (on his return from Lille he painted several compositions in the Château de
Saint-Germain-en-Laye), and finally—for they remained unfinished at his death—by the vast
labours of Versailles, where he reserved for himself the Halls of War and Peace (Salons de la
Guerreand de la Paix, 1686), the Ambassadors' Staircase, and the Great Hall of Mirrors (Galerie
des Glaces, 1679–1684). Le Brun's decoration is not only a work of art, it is the definitive
monument of a reign.
Later years[edit]
At the death of Colbert, François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, Colbert's enemy, who
succeeded as superintendent in the department of public works, showed no favour to Le Brun
who was Colbert's favorite, and in spite of the king's continued support Le Brun felt a bitter
change in his position. This contributed to the illness which on 22 February 1690 ended in his
death in his private mansion, in Paris.
Le Brun's work and legacy[edit]
Chancellor Séguier and his suite, ca. 1670, Musée du Louvre
Tapis de Savonnerie, under Louis XIV, after Charles Le Brun, made for the Grande Galerie in
the Louvre
Le Brun primarily worked for King Louis XIV, for whom he executed large altarpieces and
battle pieces. His most important paintings are at Versailles. Besides his gigantic labours at
Versailles and the Louvre, the number of his works for religious corporations and private patrons
is enormous. Le Brun was also a fine portraitist and an excellent draughtsman, but he was not
fond of portrait or landscape painting, which he felt to be a mere exercise in developing technical
prowess. What mattered was scholarly composition, whose ultimate goal was to nourish the
spirit. The fundamental basis on which the director of the Academy based his art was
unquestionably to make his paintings speak, through a series of symbols, costumes and gestures
that allowed him to select for his composition the narrative elements that gave his works a
particular depth. For Le Brun, a painting represented a story one could read. Nearly all his
compositions have been reproduced by celebrated engravers.
In his posthumously published treatise, Méthode pour apprendre à dessiner les passions (1698)
he promoted the expression of the emotions in painting. It had much influence on art theory for
the next two centuries.
Many of his drawings are in the Louvre and the Monaco Royal Collection. He was also the
teacher of painter Ludovico Dorigny.
On 23 January 2013, artistic advisors for the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Wanda Tymowska and Joseph
Friedman, announced the discovery of The Sacrifice of Polyxena, an early work of Le Brun. The
picture, dated 1647, ornamented the Coco Chanel suite of the famous Parisian palace, and went
unnoticed for over a century.[3][4]
The pieces of work I have chosen to write about are by Charles Le Brun He was born on 24th feb .
1619.They were completed by Charles Le Brun around the period between 1640-1680 .It comes from
the movement called French neoclassical art where many of the artist based their work on the work of
the classical artists like the Greeks and Romans I think the work portrays various expressions ranging
from the horrified to nervous to semi conscious , In the various pieces of artwork I can see many
expressions and high and low points .I think the artist is trying to show a variety of emotions .In the
foreground middle ground and background there is . The piece is painted drawn constructed from
pencil .The pieces are made out of paper and pen and ink and pencil .The technique of has been
used is drawing in inks pencils and as he was trained classically he has structured his heads with
magnificent three dimensional depth almost like sculptures. .The artist may have used to/because
.The lines used in his pieces are quite loose like the group of heads in ink showing expression this gives
an impression of movement due to the looseness of the strokes.The texture appears to be smooth
although this is broken by in some cases aggressive use of line or even cross hatching which as you can
see on the La Grainte which gives the surface a more indented texture. Therefore the piece looks more
embossed than flat. .The marks that have been used are generally used to define the three
dimensional form of the object .The patterns are generally linear but can be curvaceous in order to
follow the three dimensional form of the object .They create a formed three dimensional effect . The
shapes and form in the work are varied but always .The tone in the painting /drawing is .The colours
are .The use of colour in the work makes me feel. The artist has used primary colours in the areas The
artists has used complementary colours in his work and they are .They are situated in
parts of the
painting /sculpture /collage. I think the story behind the piece are that they were made as studies for
larger paintings /prints .Le Brun was a painter for the King Louis and his exceptional talent was spotted
at an early age.He was commissioned to paint battle scenes and alterpieces which give his works some
form of depth in terms of handling loads of figures put together either in distress or harmony .I think
the artist wanted us to feel that although he was classically trained and was called the best artist ever
in French history by his King .I think the artist is trying to say that his work is more than just classical
portraiture which tended to be just portraits usually without expression.What Le Brun did was to try to
tell a story in his paintings by setting a scene and adding so mant different expressions to his work that
you could begin to put a picture of the story together yourself. .These piece of work makes me think of
all the different types of emotion which the artist has portrayed some angry sad and some frightful
.The work makes me feel the artist can tell a story of what is going through someones mind because of
the expression. I chose to write about this piece of work because in my project I am looking at
groupings of people and expressing emotions through a series of horrific disasters .I like his work
because he is trying to tell a story sometimes of disaster using human expression like fear anger etc
.What works in his piece is that the emotions become more important than the really good three
dimensional drawings .I has been inspired by this piece of work to complete a series of first hand
resource photographs to show horror and pain on the people I photograph to tell the story of
Hillsborough.
Using this analysis in my work
Translating my work to the style of the artist.
I have produced a copy of the artists work concentrating on aspects of his work. To do this I have used
as a medium. In copying his work I had to understand his technique which is .During the teacher
demonstration I realized that in order to copy the style I had to . First of all I had to
. The next
stages of the process were
. Finally I produced a valid copy by
I did make mistakes
which were
.I managed to rectify them by . I think my copy of the artist is reflective of his style
because . If I could have completed the copy again I would have improved my technique by
I have been inspired by the artists work because he uses figures which show really expressive nad show
fear tension pain and apprehension . The style of work fits into my project “I me Mine ‘because I am
looking at the tradegy of Hillsborough when many people died because of the overcrowding ouside
the stadium and it came spilling through because of the overcrowding outside . The artist has
inspired me to complete a copy in his style because he produces many different expressions in his
portraits and they as I said almost tell a story . I have this aspect of the work and tried to use it in my
work because I have used some of the expressions used in Le Bruns work like fear, anxiety . The aspect
I have been most impressed with is the artist’s composition is the way he groups figures together
showing different emotions. Seeing his work made me look at the Hillsborough tradegy and draw
people through photographic reference from first hand source showing all types of emotion like Le Brun
did in his work. I got the figures to be close up to the fence imitating the scenes I have seen at the
Hillsborough disaster and got my friends to pose .You can see the expressions of aniexy pain and fear
etched on the faces of those who in some cases were about to die.Media use tonal arrangement
(choose one or two) because Using the teacher demonstration and links to you tube techniques I have
copied the artists style by first of all drawing heads using contour lines to give them depth and modeling
in much the same way Le Brun and my teacher created form . Contour lines are used to follow the three
dimensional form of objects and you shade in the direction of the contours of the face .We did a lot of
this at the beginning of the course but its still hard.The artifacts I have used are similar to the artist’s
objects because I took photographs of my friends as previously mentioned If I could copy the object
again in his style I would improve my work by getting more tone and three dimensional depth on my
faces.
.
Gallery visit
In order to get a better insight to my artist work I visited the museum. The museum is located in .it
was built in and it houses a collection based on . The amount of people who visit the museum per
year is . My artistic link was in the area of
. I thought that the museum was
.I
completed a primary source drawing of
in the museum which links to my project because
When completing my primary source images I took some photographs.
Artist analysis during the gallery visit
The piece of work I have chosen to write about is
.It was completed by in
.It comes from the
movement called. I think the work portrays
, in this piece of artwork I can see .I think the artist
is trying to say .In the foreground middle ground and background there is . The piece is painted
drawn constructed from .The piece is made out of
.The technique of has been used .The artist
may have used to/because .The lines used in piece are .The texture appears to be Therefore the
piece looks .The marks /textures/brushstrokes that have been used are .The patterns are .They
create effect. The shapes and form in the work are .The tone in the painting /drawing is .The
colours are .The use of colour in the work makes me feel. The artist has used primary colours in the
areas The artists has used complementary colours in his work and they are .They are situated in
parts of the painting /sculpture /collage. I think the story behind this piece is
.I think the artist
wanted us to feel /think .I think the artist is trying to say that .The piece of work makes me think of
.The work makes me
because. I chose to write about this piece of work because .I like /dislike the
work because .What works in this piece is .I has been inspired by this piece of work to.