[Born in Paris, 1617. Died 1655. Aged 38.]
One of the greatest French painters. First taught by his father, a
sculptor; then a pupil in the studio of Vouet. His fame established by
the pictures, twenty-two in number, which he painted for the Chartreuse
in Paris, and which represent the chief events in the life of St.
Bruno, the founder of the Order. He took delight in sacred subjects, and
in simple religious affection he left Lebrun and Poussin far behind him.
He scarcely ever quitted Paris, never France; and his sole studies were
the few exemplars from the antique which he could find in his native
city. Raffaelle he could worship only through the engravings of
Marcantonio. But the love of his art was boundless, his study intense,
his industry inexhaustible. He excelled in purity of form, and his
pictures reveal a tenderness of feeling and a spiritual grace, wholly
wanting in the productions of the majority of his contemporaries. He was
himself a man of mild and blameless nature. He died very early, worn out
by his labours and by the active jealousy of his brother artists.
[The costume is that of the time of Louis XIII. From a marble by P. L.
Laurent, done in 1806. Laurent was a pupil of Pajou, and died in
1816.]