Simon Vouet

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Simon Vouet
Self-portrait of c.1626-1627 (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon)
Born	9 January 1590 Paris
Died	30 June 1649
Field	Painting
Training	Father's studio, stay in Rome (1613-27)
Movement	Baroque
Patrons	Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu
Influenced by	Carracci family, Caravaggio, Italian Mannerism, Paolo Veronese, Guercino, Guido Reni
Influenced	Charles le Brun, Valentin de Boulogne, Pierre Mignard, Eustache Le Sueur, Nicolas Chaperon, Claude Mellan, Abraham Willaerts

Simon Vouet (9 January 1590 - 30 June 1649) was a French painter and draftsman, who helped introduce the Italian Baroque style to France.

Contents 1 Life 2 Exhibitions 3 Works 3.1 Gallery 3.2 Decorative schemes 3.3 Royal tapisteries 3.4 Studio and copies 4 Notes 5 External links

[edit] Life

His father Laurent was also a painter and taught him the rudiments of art - Simon's brother Aubin Vouet (1595-1641) was also a painter, whilst his wife Virginia da Vezzo modelled for Simon's virgins and Madonnas. Simon began his painting career as a portraitist. He then travelled to England and was part of the entourage of the baron de Sancy, French ambassador to Constantinople. He then spent a long stay in Italy from 1613 to 1627. His time was mostly spent in Rome (where the Baroque style was originating in these years, and where his patrons included cardinal Barberini, the future pope Urban VIII). However, he also visited Venice, Bologna (where the Carracci family had their academy), Genoa (where, from 1620 to 1622, he worked for the Doria princes) and Naples. He was a natural academic, who studied and absorbed everything in his environment and distilled them: Caravaggio's dramatic lighting, Italian Mannerism, Paolo Veronese's color, and the art of the Carracci, Guercino, and Guido Reni. Vouet's immense success in Rome meant that he became president of the Accademia di San Luca in 1624.

Simon Vouet suddenly came back to France in 1627, following pressing recommendations from the duc de Béthunes and a summons from Louis XIII. A French contemporary, lacking the term "Baroque", said, "In his time the art of painting began to be practiced here in a nobler and more beautiful way than ever before," and the allegory of "Riches" (illustration, left) demonstrates a new heroic sense of volumes, a breadth and confidence without decorative mannerisms. Vouet's new style was distinctly Italian, importing the Italian Baroque style into France. He adapted this style to the grand decorative scheme of the era of Louis XIII and Richelieu and was made premier peintre du Roi. Louis XIII commissioned portraits, tapistery cartoons and paintings from him for the Palais du Louvre, the Palais du Luxembourg and the château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In 1632, he worked for the cardinal de Richelieu at the Palais-Royal and the château de Malmaison. In 1631 he also decorated the château of the président de Fourcy, at Chessy, the hôtel Bullion, the château of marshal d Effiat at Chilly, the hôtel of the duc d’Aumont, the Séguier chapel, and the gallery of the château de Wideville.

In Paris, Vouet was the fresh dominating force, painting public altarpieces and allegorical decors for private patrons. Vouet's atelier produced a whole school of French painters for the following generation, and through Vouet French Baroque painting retained a classicizing restraint from the outset. Compare French Baroque artists Philippe de Champaigne, Nicolas Poussin and above all, Charles le Brun, his most influential pupil, who organized all the interior decorative painting at Versailles and dictated official style at the court of Louis XIV of France, but who jealously excluded Vouet from the Académie Royale in 1648. Vouet's other students included Valentin de Boulogne (the main figure of the French "Caravaggisti"), Pierre Mignard, Eustache Le Sueur, Nicolas Chaperon, Claude Mellan and the Flemish artist Abraham Willaerts. Vouet was also a friend of Claude Vignon.

[edit] Exhibitions

• 1990 : retrospective of Simon Vouet's work at the Galeries nationales of the Grand Palais.
• 2002-2003 : Simon Vouet ou l'éloquence sensible at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes (5 December 2002-20 February 2003), devoted to drawings from his French period now in the collection of the Staatsbibliothek in Munich.
• 2008-2009 : Simon Vouet, les années italiennes (1613-1627) (21 November 2008-23 February 2009), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes^[1], in collaboration with the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon (where it toured 26 March to 29 June 2009).

[edit] Works

[edit] Gallery

Work	Title	Date	Dimensions	Museum
	Crucifixion	1622	375 X 225 cm.	Chiesa del Gesù, Gênes
	Allegory of La Richesse	1630/1635	170 X 124 cm.	Musée du Louvre, Paris
	The muses Urania and Caliope.	1634	79,8 X 125 cm.	National Gallery of Art, New York,
	Portrait of Angélique Vouet (Simon's daughter).	1635/1638	Pastel on paper	Musée du Louvre, París
	Hesselin Virgin and Child	?	97 X 77 cm.	Musée du Louvre, París
	Sleeping Venus	1630/40	100,5 X 84 cm.	Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
	Presentation of Jesus at the Temple	1641	393 x 250 cm.	Musée du Louvre, París
	Apollo and the Muses	1640		Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
	Detail of Apollo and the Muses	1640		Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

• Last Supper (1616-1620), Palazzo Apostolico, Loretto (Italy)
• Portrait of a young man (1600-1650), Louvre
• Prince Marcantonio Doria d'Angri (1621), Louvre
• Crucifixion, Chiesa del Gesù, Gênes
• Temptation of Saint Francis (1624-1625), church of Saint-Laurent-en-Lucina, Rome
• Saint Francis renouncing his goods (1624-1625), church of Saint-Laurent-en-Lucina, Rome
• The Holy Family with St Elisabeth and the infant St John the Baptist (1625-1650), Louvre
• Time vanquished by Love, Hope and Renown (1627), Prado, Madrid
• Sleeping Venus (1630), Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
• Suite of the loves of Renaud and Armide (1631)
• Allegory of Riches (1630-1635), Louvre (Saint-Germain-en-Laye)
• Allegory of Charity (1630-1635), Louvre
• Allegory of Virtue (1640), Saint-Germain-en-Laye
• Repentant Magdalen (1633), Musée de Picardie, Amiens
• Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (1641), Louvre

• Saturn vanquished by Love, Venus and Hope (1646), Musée du Berry, Bourges
• Saint William of Aquitaine (1649), Louvre
• Annunciation, Uffizi, Florence
• Crucifixion, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
• Self-portrait (1626-1627), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (copy?)
• Gaucher de Châtillon (1250-1328) (1632-1635), Louvre
• Loth and his Daughters (1633), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg
• The Toilette of Venus (1639)
• Death of Dido
• Portrait of Louis XIII between two female figures symbolising France and Navarre, Louvre
• The Awakening of Europa (1640), Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
• Portrait of Louis XIII copy at the château de Versailles (1643)
• The Four Cardinal Virtues (1638), Salon de Mars, Château de Versailles
  • Allegory of Temperance
  • Allegory of Force
  • Allegory of Prudence
  • Allegory of Justice
• Judith, Munich Pinacothek
• Judith gives her servant Holofernes's head HST, 129cm X 111cm - 1630c.(Collection of the Live de Jully) Drouot April 1989
• Venus and Adonis, (1642), Paul Getty Museum
• Christ at the column, (Eustache Le Sueur?) (Louvre)
• Polymnia, Muse of eloquence, Louvre
• Last Supper, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
• Judith, Munich Pinacothek
• Judith gives her servant Holofernes's head HST, 129cm X 111cm - 1630c.(Collection of the Live de Jully) Drouot April 1989
• Venus and Adonis, (1642), Paul Getty Museum
• Christ at the column, (Eustache Le Sueur?) (Louvre)
• Polymnia, Muse of eloquence, Louvre
• Last Supper, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

[edit] Decorative schemes

• Palais de la Justice
• Palais Cardinal, Musée des hommes illustre
• The Châteaux de Rueil
• Château de La Muette
• Château Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, The Four Cardinal Virtues
• Château de Fontainebleau
• Residence of Chancelier Séguier (hôtel)
• Residence of Maréchal de La Meilleraye
• Residence of Président Tuboeuf
• Church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs à Paris, The Assumption (1629), Apostles at the Tomb of the Virgin
• Church of Saint-Etienne à Chilly-Mazarin, Burial of Christ (1639)
• Hôtel-Bullion
• Church of Saint-Merry à Paris, Saint Merry releasing the Prisoners (1640)

[edit] Royal tapisteries

• Renaud and Armide, Renaud in the arms of Armide (1630-1660), Louvre
• Moses saved from the waters (Old Testament)
• The Life of Ulysses (labours of Ulysses)

[edit] Studio and copies

• Saint Sebastian (1618-1620), Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation (USA)
• Intelligence, Memory and Will, Capitoline Museums, Rome
• Virgin and Child à la rose, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille
• Hesselin Virgin and Child, Louvre
• Sainte Marie Madeleine, National Gallery, Rome
• Allegory of the Fine Arts, National Gallery, Rome
• Allegory of Peace, National Gallery, Rome
• Allegory of Charity (1640-1645), Museum of Draguignan
• Diana, Somerset House, London
• Virgin and Child with an Angel, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen
• Suicide of Lucretia, Narodni Gallery, Prague
• Roman Charity, Musée Bonnat, Bayonne
• Burial, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
• Martyrdom of Saint Eustace, church of Saint-Eustache, Paris
• Diana, Royal Collection, Hampton Court
• Hercules among the Olympians, Royal Collection, Hampton Court
• Minerva, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
• Virgin and Child, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
• Virgin and Child, Ashmoleam Museum, Oxford
• Virgin and Child, Musée Magnon, Dijon
• Apollo and the Muses, National Hungarian Museum, Budapest

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Getty Museum website: Simon Vouet
• www.Simon-Vouet.org - 28 works by Simon Vouet
• Works by Simon Vouet
• Online Vouet Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
• Saint Cecilia at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin

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