AFTER SIMON VOUET (PARIS 1590-1649)

AFTER SIMON VOUET (PARIS 1590-1649)
Madonna and Child
oil on canvas
129 x 98.5 cm

After the 1639-40 painting in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

This elegant well observed version points to its likely execution during the 17th century, and of similar proportions to the known studio output. The work of his last two decades combines a sense of monumental format, often (as here) using a di sotto in sù (as seen from below) view point with a strongly coloured and vibrant palette, displaying rich and fluent brushwork.

Simon Vouet was a French painter who was born in Paris in 1590 and died there in 1649. He was a leading figure in the Baroque movement in France and one of the most important painters of his time.

Vouet trained in Paris with his father Laurent Vouet, a painter and designer, and later spent several years in Italy studying the works of Caravaggio, Raphael, and other Italian masters. He returned to France in the early 1620s and quickly gained a reputation as a skilled painter of portraits, religious scenes, and mythological subjects.

Vouet's style was characterised by a dramatic use of light and shadow, vivid colours, and a focus on the human form. He was particularly renowned for his skill in depicting drapery, which he used to create a sense of movement and emotion in his paintings.

In addition to his work as a painter, Vouet was also an important figure in the French art world as the head of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, a position he held from 1641 until his death in 1649. He was also a favorite painter of the French royal family, and many of his works can still be seen in the Louvre Museum in Paris today.Click here to share: