Charles Le Brun , 1619-90, French painter, decorator, and architect. He studied with Vouet and in Rome. Strongly influenced by Poussin, he returned in 1646 to Paris, where he gradually developed a more decorative form of classicism. He decorated the Hôtel Lambert and worked at Vaux-le-Vicomte with the architect Le Vau. His first royal commission (1661), the painting The Family of Darius before Alexander, established his favor with Louis XIV. With the support of Colbert, he became painter to the king in 1662. Le Brun controlled artistic production and theory in France for more than two...
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