Antoine Coypel

Antoine Coypel (11 April 1661 – 7 January 1722)[1] was a French painter, pastellist, engraver, decorative designer and draughtsman.[2][3] He became court painter first to the Duke of Orléans and later to the French king. He became director of the Académie Royale. He was given the title of Garde des tableaux et dessins du roi (Keeper of the paintings and drawings of the king), a function which combined the role of director and curator of the king's art collection.[4] He was raised to the nobility by the French king. He is known for his history paintings, biblical, mythological and allegorical works, portraits and genre scenes.[3]

Self-portrait , 1715

Life

Antoine Coypel was born in Paris as the son of the French painter Noël Coypel.[5] He studied under his father, with whom he spent four years in Rome after his father had been appointed director of the French academy in 1672. Gianlorenzo Bernini became his mentor.[3] He won a prize for drawing at the Accademia di San Luca, the association of artists in Rome.[6]

Man resting in the lap of a woman

Coypel completed his training at the Académie Royale in Paris. In 1689 he received an important commission for an altarpiece in the Notre-Dame de Paris.[6] In 1681, at the age of 20 he was admitted (reçu) as a full member of the Académie royale. He was in 1685 appointed premier peintre of the Duke of Orléans (the French king's eldest brother who at the time was Philippe I, Duke of Orléans). The House of Orléans remained an important patron of the artist for many years.

Mount Olympus

In 1716 he was appointed king's painter. He was raised to the nobility the following year.[3]

His great work of decoration was the ceiling of the Royal chapel at Versailles (1716), in the manner of the Roman Baroque. He also carried out large-scale paintings illustrating themes of the Aeneid for the Palais-Royal (1714–1717).

His half-brother Noël-Nicolas and his son Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694–1752) were also accomplished painters. The sculptor François Dumont was his brother-in-law.

Coypel died in 1722, at 61 years of age.

Drawings

Coypel was one of the leading draughtsmen of his generation. About 500 of his drawings survive, many of them kept at the Louvre. They comprise figure studies and preparatory drawings for his paintings. He was particularly skilled in the use of coloured pencils and chalks.[6]

  • Selected works
  • Young black boy holding a fruit basket and a girl stroking a dog, 1682, Louvre
  • Democritus, 1692, Louvre
  • Susan accused of adultery, c. 1695, Museo del Prado
  • The Swooning of Esther, 1704, Louvre

References
  1. Turner, Nicholas (2001). European Drawings 4: Catalogue of the Collections. Getty Publications. p. 174. ISBN 9780892365845.
  2. "Antoine Coypel | French artist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2018-08-08.
  3. Coypel, Antoine in: Benezit Dictionary of Artists
  4. Esther Bell, A Curator at the Louvre: Charles Coypel and the Royal Collections at Journal18, Issue 2 Louvre Local (Fall 2016)
  5. Etienne Achille Réveil; Jean Duchesne (1834). Museum of Painting and Sculpture: Or, Collection of the Principal ..., Volume 16. Bossange. p. 354.
  6. Antoine Coypel Biography Stephen Ongpin Fine Art
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