Le Brun, Charles

Le Brun, Charles (shärl lə bröN`), 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.

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Le Brun, Charles

(born Feb. 24, 1619, Paris, France—died Feb. 12, 1690, Paris) French painter and designer. After study in Paris and Rome, he received large decorative and religious commissions that made his reputation. Possessing extraordinary organizational as well as technical skills, as the first painter to Louis XIV he created or supervised the production of most of the paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects commissioned by the French government for three decades, notably for the Palace of Versailles. As director of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture and organizer of the French Academy at Rome, he was instrumental in establishing the characteristic homogeneity of French art in the 17th century.