Champaigne, Philippe de

Champaigne or Champagne, Philippe de (both: fēlēp` də shäNpä`nyə), 1602–74, French painter, b. Brussels, of Flemish parents. In 1621 he went to Paris, where he worked with Poussin on the Luxembourg Palace. In 1628 he became painter to the queen, Marie de' Medici. For her and for Richelieu he executed many religious paintings, still to be seen in French churches, and numerous portraits. From 1640 on he became absorbed in the Jansenist movement and has been called the painter of Port-Royal. His later work is characterized by sober realism, simplicity, and austerity. His best-known paintings include his frescoes at Vincennes and in the Tuileries, his portrait of his daughter, a nun at Port-Royal (1662), and a penetrating study of Richelieu (both: Louvre). Basing his portrait style on patterns established by Rubens and Van Dyck, he rendered his subjects with an air of static majesty.

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Champaigne, Philippe de

(born May 26, 1602, Brussels—died Aug. 12, 1674, Paris, Fr.) Flemish-born French painter. Trained in Brussels, he arrived in Paris in 1621. His patrons included Louis XIII, Marie de Médicis, and Cardinal Richelieu, and he became the outstanding French portraitist of the Baroque period. He became a professor at the Royal Academy (1653) and produced many pieces for the palaces and churches of Paris. His finest work includes two portraits of Richelieu and various paintings for the Jansenist Convent of Port-Royal, especially the austere Ex-voto: Mother Agnès and Sister Catherine (1662), commemorating his daughter Catherine's miraculous cure through Mother Agnès's prayers.