Louis le nain biography of abraham

  • The Le Nain brothers––Antoine, Louis, and Mathieu––were born in Laon and settled in the artist's community of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris, by
  • Antoine or Louis Le Nain, Peasant Family in an Interior, 2nd quarter of the 17th century, oil on canvas, x m (Musée du Louvre, Paris).
  • Only about 15 paintings survive by the three Le Nain brothers, of whom Louis was certainly the most interesting.

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    The Le Nain brothers––Antoine, Louis, and Mathieu––were born in Laon and settled in the artist’s community of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris, by The brothers were founding members of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Antoine and Louis died that same year, presumably of the plague. The Le Nain studio produced portraits and religious works as well as mythological and genre scenes. A group of peasant scenes characterized by their sensitive, subdued palette and emotional solemnity has traditionally been assigned to Louis, who has been regarded as the genius of the family.

    In the Peasant Interior with an Old Flute Player, an air of serenity surrounds the dignified group, still and silent but for the sound of the flute. Despite the artist’s clear sympathy with humble values, however, the scene is an idealized portrayal of peasant life. Wine in a crystal glass was not peasant fare. Together with the bread placed on the white tablecloth, the wine evidently alludes to the Eu

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    Before Realism

    Concurrent exhibitions devoted to Valentin de Boulogne and the Brothers Le Nain highlight the prescience and grittiness of seventeenth-century French painting.

    ONE NIGHT IN Rome, in the summer of , an expat French painter named Valentin de Boulogne stumbled home after a night of drinking. The evening was warm despite the hour, and Valentin decided to refresh himself by jumping fully clothed into the Fontana del Babuino, just down the street from Piazza di Spagna (the fountain, still in operation, was under the window of Valentin&#;s rival, Nicolas Poussin; one wonders if he was trying to send a message). An aging galant, known as “Loverboy” to his friends, Valentin was really too old for that sort of thing: he emerged from the water shivering; the chill became a fever, and a few days later Valentin de Boulogne was dead at forty-one.

    It was a turning point in the history of French painting. Valentin had been a star of the French art world, which was

  • louis le nain biography of abraham

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    The Le Nain Brothers and the Dutch Influence

    The Le Nains and the Dutch Influence: The Question of Group Portraiture nicol as milovanov ic a long tradition of french historiography has characterized the le nain brothers as thoroughly French artists. This tradition goes back to their rediscovery bygd Champfleury in Charles Blanc endorsed the understanding in the fifth volume of his Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles (The History of the Painters of All Nations), published in “This Le Nain (Louis or Matthieu) is a true French painter, a full-blooded Frenchman. A contemporary of Callot, Valentin, Poussin, and Claude, he did not travel to Italy as they did. No foreign element has intervened to temper his rough Gallic manner.”2 Champfleury, who cites this passage at the end of chapter 12 of his landmark monograph of , fransk artikel peintres dem la réalité sous Louis XIII. fransk artikel frères Le Nain (Painters of realism under Louis XIII: The brothers Le Nain), urges readers to “set aside Watteau, Bouc