
''Ex Voto'' (1662) by Philippe de Champaigne
'Philippe de Champaigne' (Brussels
26 May 1602 - Paris
12 August 1674) was a
Baroque era painter of the
French school.
Born in
Brussels of a poor family, Champaigne was a pupil of the landscape painter
Jacques Fouquières. He moved to
Paris in
1621, where he worked with
Nicolas Poussin on the decoration of the
Palais du Luxembourg under the direction of
Nicolas Duchesne, whose daughter he married.
After the death of his protector Duchesne, Champaigne worked for the Queen Mother,
Marie de Medicis, and for
Richelieu, for whom he decorated the cardinal's palace, the Dome of the Sorbonne church and other buildings. He was a founding member of the
Académie Royale de Peinture in
1648.
Later in his life (
1640), he came under the influence of
Jansenism. After his paralysed daughter was allegedly miraculously cured at the nunnery of
Port-Royal, he painted the celebrated but untypical picture ''Ex-Voto'' (
1662), now in the
Louvre, which represents the artist's daughter with Mother-Superior Cathérine-Agnès Arnauld.
Champaigne produced a very large number of paintings, mainly religious works and portraits. Influenced by
Rubens at the beginning of his career, his style later became more austere.
He died in
Paris.
External links
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Paintings of Philippe de Champaigne