Le Nain - External links and sources

A family of French painters: three brothers, Antoine (c.1588–1648), Louis (c.1593–1648), and Mathieu (c.1607–77). All were born in Laon, but worked in Paris from c.1630, and all were foundation members of the Académie in 1648. Louis is considered the best, with his large genre-scenes and groups of peasants painted in beautiful greyish greens and browns. ‘The Forge’ (Louvre) may have been painted by Louis and Mathieu together, for the brothers seem occasionally to have collaborated.

Antoine, Louis, and Mathieu Le Nain were painters in early 17th century France.

Because of the remarkable similarity of their styles of painting and the difficulty of distinguishing works by each brother (they signed their paintings only with their surname, and many may have been collaborations), they are commonly referred to as a single entity, "Le Nain". Louis is usually credited with the best-known of their paintings, a series of scenes depicting peasant life.

The brothers also produced miniatures (mainly attributed to Antoine) and portraits (attributed to Mathieu).

Antoine and Louis died in 1648.

The Paintings had a revival in the 1840s and thanks to the exertions of Champfleury, made their appearance on the walls of the Louvre in 1848. The 'naive' quality of these works, with their static poses,'awkward' compositions and peasant subjects were admired and may well have exercised some influence on many nineteenth-century artists, notably Courbet himself.

External links and sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis Le Nain http://30.1911encyclopedia.org/L/LE/LE_NAIN.htm http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/l/le_nain/biograph.html http://www.artchive.com/artchive/L/le_nain.html http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/nain/lenain_bio.htm http://keptar.demasz.hu/arthp/bio/l/le_nain/biograph.htm