Artist analysis

Charles Le Brun, portrait by Nicolas de Largilliere

Born24 February 1619Paris

Died22 February 1690Paris

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 17th-century French art.

Contents[hide]

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 24 th 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.