Charles Le Brun

The French painter, decorator, and draftsman Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) served as administrator of painting and the decorative arts under King Louis XIV.

Between 1661 and 1683 Charles Le Brun was virtually dictator of all the arts in France except architecture, and he imposed a unified standard of academic performance upon all the artists who wished to enjoy official recognition. This standard served the monarchy incomparably well in its need for expressive propaganda. The Louis XIV style, formulated by Le Brun, was of a technically high order, though somewhat grandiose and ponderously uniform by today's standards. Through it, Paris replaced Rome as the artistic capital of Europe, and the maxim of Jean Baptiste Colbert, the first minister, that "it is by the dimensions of monuments that one measures kings" was fulfilled.

Born in Paris, Le Brun was the son of a sculptor. After his apprenticeship to the decorator François Périer, Le Brun enjoyed successively the protection of Chancellor Séguier, cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, and the regent, Anne of Austria. In Rome (1642-1646) Le Brun studied under Nicolas Poussin and digested the Roman baroque style of Pietro da Cortona.

Le Brun was one of the 12 founders of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648, and his ascendant authority in that official organization made him eligible in 1661 to become director of art works at the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte, being constructed by the minister of finance, Nicolas Fouquet. Louis XIV, who deeply resented the opulent grandeur of this country house, dismissed Fouquet and appropriated his artistic team for use in the embellishment of the palace of Versailles. Scarcely an item of decoration for any royal dwelling was executed between 1661 and 1683 which was not conceived by Le Brun and carried out under his direction by a host of artists and craftsmen, and no painting was regarded as official without his sanction.

In 1662 Le Brun was ennobled. In 1663 he was made chancellor for life of the academy, keeper of the Royal Collections, and director of the Gobelins manufactory. In 1666 he organized the French Royal Academy in Rome. On the death of Colbert in 1683 Le Brun assumed the director-ship of the academy, but the new first minister, Louvois, gradually caused Le Brun to be superseded by Pierre Mignard, though he tactfully retained Le Brun, until his death, as first painter to the King. Le Brun spent his last years brooding over this seeming injustice and painting religious works which reflect the excessive piety of the aged Louis XIV under the influence of Madame de Maintenon (the Life of Christ series).

In spite of Le Brun's pronouncements favoring the eclectic academicism of the Bolognese baroque painters and his rigid support of the "ancients" (classical art, Raphael, and Poussin) over the "moderns" (the colorists, Titian, and Peter Paul Rubens), his real artistic preference was naturalism. His equestrian portrait of Chancellor Séguier (1661) reveals the harmonious French blending of northern physiognomical realism and heroic stateliness.

Further Reading

There is no monograph in English on Le Brun. Anthony Blunt, Art and Architecture in France, 1500-1700 (1953; 2d ed. 1970), treats the artist-administrator, specifically and comprehensively, within the context of his era. Le Brun is also treated extensively in Fiske Kimball, The Creation of the Rococo (1943); Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art (2 vols., 1951; new ed., 4 vols., 1958); and Germain Bazin, Baroque and Rococo (trans. 1964). □

Le Brun, Charles (1619–90). French painter, designer, and art theorist, the dominant artist of Louis XIV's reign. He trained under Vouet and quickly made a name for himself, winning a commission from Cardinal Richelieu when he was barely out of his teens; the only surviving picture from this commission (for the Palais Cardinal in Paris) is Hercules and the Horses of Diomedes (c.1640, Castle Mus., Nottingham). In 1642 Le Brun went to Rome in company with Poussin, who was returning from his visit to Paris, and remained there until 1646. After his return to Paris he was soon busy with varied commissions and during the 1650s he established himself as the leading decorative painter in France. In 1662 he was raised to the nobility and named first painter to the king, and in 1663 he was made director of the Gobelins factory and of the Académie Royale. For the next two decades, until the death of his patron Jean-Baptiste Colbert ( Louis XIV's chief minister) in 1683, Le Brun was virtually the dictator of the visual arts in France. He not only supervised all the great royal commissions, but also turned the Académie into a channel for imposing a codified system of artistic orthodoxy (see Academy). His lectures, formulated on the classicism of Poussin, came to be accepted as providing the official standards of artistic correctness and gave authority to the view that every aspect of artistic creation can be reduced to teachable rule and precept. In 1698 his small illustrated treatise Méthode pour apprendre à dessiner les passions… was posthumously published; in this, again following theories of Poussin, he purported to codify the visual expression of the emotions in painting. The treatise went through numerous editions in French and other languages and remained a standard textbook for art students until well into the 19th century. Despite the classicism of his theories, Le Brun's own talents lay rather in the direction of flamboyant and grandiose decorative effects. Among the most outstanding of his works for the king were the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre (1663), and the famous Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) (1679–84) and the Escalier des Ambassadeurs (Great Staircase) (1671–8, destroyed in 1752) at Versailles. Because his artistic domination became so closely identified with the political despotism of Louis XIV, Le Brun's posthumous reputation suffered, but it rose again in the second half of the 20th century, a major exhibition of his work at Versailles in 1963 being a landmark in demonstrating the range and quality of his work. In addition to his achievements as a decorative painter, he was a fine portraitist and an extremely prolific draughtsman.

Le Brun, Charles (bapt. Paris, 24 Feb. 1619; d Paris, 12 Feb. 1690). French painter, designer, and art theorist, the dominant artist of Louis XIV's reign. He trained under Vouet and quickly made a name for himself, winning a commission from Cardinal Richelieu when he was barely out of his teens; the only surviving picture from this commission (for the Palais Cardinal in Paris) is Hercules and the Horses of Diomedes (c.1640, Castle Mus., Nottingham). In 1640 Le Brun went to Rome in company with Poussin, who was returning from his visit to Paris, and remained there until 1646. After his return to Paris he was soon busy with varied commissions and during the 1650s he established himself as the leading decorative painter in France. In 1662 he was raised to the nobility and named first painter to the king, and in 1663 he was made director of the Gobelins factory and of the Académie Royale. For the next two decades, until the death of his patron Jean-Baptiste Colbert ( Louis XIV's chief minister) in 1683, Le Brun was virtually the dictator of the visual arts in France. He not only supervised all the great royal commissions, but also turned the Académie into a channel for imposing a codified system of artistic orthodoxy (see academy). His lectures, formulated on the classicism of Poussin, provided the official standards of artistic correctness and gave authority to the view that every aspect of artistic creation can be reduced to teachable rule and precept. In 1698 his illustrated treatise Méthode pour apprendre à dessiner les passions…was posthumously published; in this, again following theories of Poussin, he purported to codify the visual expression of the emotions in painting. The treatise went through numerous editions in French and other languages and remained a standard textbook for art students until well into the 19th century.

Despite the classicism of his theories, Le Brun's own talents lay rather in the direction of flamboyant and grandiose effects. Among the most outstanding of his works for the king were the decoration of the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre (1663), and of the famous Galerie des Glaces (1679–84) and the Great Staircase (1671–8, destroyed in 1752) at Versailles. Because his artistic domination became so closely identified with the political despotism of Louis XIV, Le Brun's posthumous reputation suffered, but it rose again in the second half of the 20th century, a major exhibition of his work at Versailles in 1963 being a landmark in demonstrating the range and quality of his work. In addition to his achievements as a decorative painter, he was a fine portraitist and an extremely prolific draughtsman.

Le Brun, Charles (1619-1690)

A celebrated French painter born in Paris, February 24, 1619. When only 15 years old, he received commissions from Cardinal Richelieu, and his paintings were also praised by Poussin. Le Brun was a founder of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648) and the Academy of France at Rome (1666). He also was director of the Gobelins, a famous school for the manufacture of tapestries and royal furniture. Le Brun's treatise on physiognomy, Traité sur la physionomie humaine comparée avec celle des aminaux, was written at a time when the subject was considered to be an occult science. In this book Le Brun executed remarkable drawings comparing human and animal faces, a theme later developed with reference to the emotions by Charles Darwin in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872 etc.). Le Brun died February 22, 1690.

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 decades. Appointed head of the Gobelins works in 1663, he was responsible for the design of royal furnishings. He supervised the work of a large corps of painters, sculptors, engravers, weavers, and other decorators. He was also director of the Académie royale, through which office he set the standard for the Grand Manner and imposed a stringent discipline upon artistic expression. Among his numerous achievements are the decorations at Versailles. In collaboration with J. H. Mansart, he designed several rooms there, including the Galerie des Glaces. Though not a highly original artist, Le Brun was a skilled administrator and was able to create an atmosphere of richness and splendor consonant with the age of Louis XIV.

Charles François Lebrun , 1739–1824, French statesman. A moderate member of the Constituent Assembly after the start of the French Revolution, he was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. Following the coup of Napoleon Bonaparte (Nov., 1799), Lebrun served as third consul. In 1804 when Napoleon became emperor he made Lebrun arch-treasurer of the empire, and later duke of Piacenza. In 1810 he was appointed governor of Holland. Made (1814) a peer by King Louis XVIII, he supported Napoleon during the Hundred Days and was excluded from the house of peers from 1815 to 1819.

Le Brun, Charles (1619–90) French artist. He painted religious, mythological, and historical subjects. As chief painter to Louis XIV, he created the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre (1661) and designed much of the interior of Versailles, including the extraordinary Hall of Mirrors (1679–84). He became director of the Académie Française and the Gobelins tapestry factory in 1663.