Nicolas Le Brun (? Crouy-1648 Paris), Sculptor and Father of Charles Le Brun

No painter influenced 17th century French art like Charles Le Brun. He was “First Painter to the King”, and entrusted by Louis XIV (1638–1715) with the interior decoration of the palaces of Fontainebleau and Versailles as well as that of the Tuileries and the Louvre in Paris. He owed this unrestricted claim to artistic leadership to the country’s most important political figures: apart from Séguier and Colbert, these were Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) and finance minister Nicolas Fouquet (1615–1680).
Le Brun exhibited great talent from an early age, as is evident from the portrait of his father Nicolas Le Brun (?–1648), depicted by his son, around 1635, as an elegantly dressed gentleman.
Turned towards the viewer, with a red scarf draped decoratively over his left shoulder, Nicolas Le Brun points at a statuette – possibly a plaster cast of one of his sculptures, entitled Antinous of Belvedere. Antinous, who drowned in the Nile during one of Hadrian’s journeys to Egypt, was a favourite of the Roman emperor, and was deified after his death. Only when further versions of the statue had been found, did it transpire that it was in fact a representation of the god Mercury. The Antinous motif was highly popular with both sculptors and painters in 17th century France.
The Residenzgalerie painting was originally attributed to the painter Jacques Blanchard (1600–1638) – as "Portrait of the Sculptor François Duquesnoy". Based on documents and a print, however, the portrait can now be confirmed as one of the early works of Charles Le Brun. In addition, many years later, Nicolas Largillière (1656–1746) portrayed Charles Le Brun with an identical Antinous statue (Paris, Musée du Louvre).

HABERSATTER Thomas: Le Brun Charles, Portrait of the sculptor Nicolas le Brun, in: DUCKE Astrid, HABERSATTER Thomas, OEHRING Erika: Masterworks. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2015, p. 124