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Historical Artist - Sébastien Bourdon (1616 - 1671)
Sebastien Bourdon moved to Paris at the age of seven to apprentice to a painter from 1623 to
1630. After briefly working in Bordeaux and Toulouse, he moved to Rome and produced copies of
famous paintings for a local dealer. Bourdon returned to Paris in 1637 and began living in the
Palais du Louvre. He soon became known for his large Baroque-style religious and classical
paintings. Bourdon helped found the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. In 1652, he
became the first painter to Queen Christina of Sweden and painted multiple court figures.
Returning to Paris once again, his final works were landscapes inspired by Poussin. His eclectic
range of styles have given art historians exercise in tracing his adaptation of his models,
while the lack of an immediately recognizable "Bourdon style" has somewhat dampened
public appreciation. In 1652 Christina of Sweden made him her first court painter. Bourdon spent
most of his working career outside France, where, though he was a founding member of the
Académie de peinture et de sculpture (1648). His success required the
establishment of an extensive atelier, where, among his other pupils worked Nicolas-Pierre Loir
and Pierre Mosnier. He died in Paris in 1671.
Contemporary French Artists
Art Galleries in France
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