Artwork
Portrait of Charles Perrault
Portrait of Charles Perrault is an oil painting by the French Classical Baroque artist Philippe Lallemand. It dates from 1672 and is held in the collection of the Palace of Versailles.
About this work
Overview
Philippe Lallemand’s 1672 oil portrait presents the writer Charles Perrault seated before a low bookshelf. The composition is framed by a dark brown backdrop, while Perrault wears a dark robe, lace collar and white shirt, his hair long and dark. His right hand rests on a small marble head of a child, adding a subtle narrative element to the scholarly setting.
Subject & Meaning
The sitter, Charles Perlault, is identified by his attire and the surrounding books, underscoring his role as a literary figure of the late‑seventeenth‑century French court. The child’s head sculpture, placed within his grasp, may allude to the fairy‑tale genre for which Perrault is renowned, hinting at the imaginative world he cultivated through his stories.
Technique & Style
Lallemand employs the French Classical Baroque idiom, evident in the controlled chiaroscuro and the smooth rendering of fabrics and flesh. The brushwork is refined, with careful modeling of the lace collar and the polished surface of the marble head. Influences from the portrait engraver Robert de Nanteuil appear in the precise, almost linear treatment of facial features.
History & Provenance
Created the same year Lallemand was received into the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, the portrait served as a reception piece for the Academy. It has remained in the French royal collection and is presently displayed at the Palace of Versailles, where it continues to represent the intersection of literary and artistic patronage in the reign of Louis XIV.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Philippe Lallemand (or Lallemant or Lalemen; 1636 – 22 March 1716) was a French portrait painter of the lesser rank, born at Reims in the province of Champagne.
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