Charles-Antoine Coypel(French pronunciation:[ʃaʁlɑ̃twankwapɛl];11 July 1694 – 14 June 1752) was a French painter, art critic, andplaywright.He became court painter to the French king and director of theAcadémie Royale.He inherited the title ofGarde 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. He was mainly active inParis.[1]
Charles-Antoine Coypel | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait(1734) | |
| Born | 11 July 1694 |
| Died | June 14, 1752(aged 57) Paris, Kingdom of France |
| Education | Antoine Coypel |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Noël Coypel(grandfather),Noël-Nicolas Coypel(half-uncle), Philippe Coypel (brother) |
| Director of theAcadémie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture | |
| In office 1747–1752 | |
| Monarch | Louis XV |
| Preceded by | Pierre-Jacques Cazes |
| Succeeded by | Louis de Silvestre |
Life
edit
Coypel was born in Paris on 11 July 1694 to a highly successful and influential family of history painters. His grandfather,Noël Coypel,had been Director of theFrench Academy in Romeas well as theAcadémie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture.[2]Antoine Coypel,Charles-Antoine's father, received numerous commissions from the French Royal Family, particularlyPhilippe II, Duke of Orléans.He would also become Director of the Académie Royale in 1714 andPremier Peintre du Roithe following year.[3]Philippe Coypel (1703-1777), Antoine Coypel's second son, would become the King'svalet de chambre.[4]
Coypel would live in theLouvre Palacefor almost his entire life, beginning when he was three years old, when his father received abrevêt de logement(residence permit) in 1697. His family's quarters comprised at least fifteen rooms beneath theGrande Galerieas well as a three thousand square foot studio space, all of which Coypel would eventually inherit.[5]
Under the tutelage of his father, Coypel showed a genuine talent for painting early in life.[6]He had the rare distinction of being named anagrééand subsequently anacadémicienby the Académie Royale on the same day in 1715 for his reception workJason and Medea.Coypel was just twenty-one years old, but he had skipped the customary journey to Rome made by history painters, and perhaps more importantly, his father was Director at the time.[7]
He inherited his father’s design and painting duties aspremier peintreto the Duke of Orléans when his father died in 1722. He became Premier Peintre du Roi and Director of the Académie Royale in 1747. He worked on several commissions for paintings for the royalPalace of Versailles,and for Louis XV and his wife, Queen Marie Leczinska.[8]
Work
editCoypel was an excellenttapestrydesigner. He designed tapestries for theGobelins manufactory.His most successful tapestries were created from aseries illustratingDon Quixote.[8]Coypel was the first to illustrateDon Quixotein a sophisticated manner. These illustrations were painted as cartoons for tapestries, and wereengravedand published in a deluxe folio in Paris in 1724.[9]Coypel created twenty-eight small paintings for these tapestries over a number of years. Each of the paintings was used as the centrepiece of a larger area that was richly decorated with birds, small animals, and garlands of flowers on a patterned background. Over two hundred pieces of theDon Quixoteseries were woven between 1714 and 1794.[10]He received a commission to design a series of theatrical scenes for tapestries for the queen ofPolandin 1747.[8]Coypel also wrote prose, several comedies, two tragedies, and some poetry.[8]
Alongside his painting career, Coypel wrote some forty plays between 1717 and 1747. OnlyLes Folies de Cardenio(1720) was published. It was staged at theTuileries Palacein 1721. InLa Poésie et la Peinture(Allegory of Painting), allegorical comedy in three acts, the artist compared the qualities of both arts. The painter also realized works on the theme of the theater, including portraits of theComédie-FrançaiseplayersCharlotte DesmaresandAdrienne Lecouvreur.
Selected works
edit- Jason and Medea(1715) –Coypel's reception piece for the Académie Royale, now atSchloss CharlottenburginBerlin
- Painting Ejecting Thalia(1732) –Norfolk,Chrysler Museum of Art
- Self-Portrait(1734) –J. Paul Getty Museum,Los Angeles
- Fury of Achilles(1737) –Hermitage Museum,Saint Petersburg
- Self-Portrait(1739) –Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans
- Portrait of Philippe Coypel and His Wife(1742) –Exhibited at theSalonof 1742, now at theArt Institute of Chicago[11]
Gallery
edit- Works byCharles-Antoine Coypel
-
Fury of Achilles(1737) -
Self-portrait(1739) -
Portrait of Philippe Coypel and His Wife(1742)
References
edit- ^Craske, Matthew, 1997,Art in Europe 1700-1830: A History of the Visual Arts in an Era of Unprecedented Urban Economic Growth,Oxford University Press,ISBN0-19-284206-4,p. 145.
- ^Klingsöhr-Leroy, Cathrin (2003)."Coypel, Noël".Grove Art Online.Oxford University Press.Retrieved28 July2023.
- ^Garnier, Nicole (2003)."Coypel, Antoine".Grove Art Online.Oxford University Press.Retrieved28 July2023.
- ^"Philippe Coypel (1703-1777), valet de chambre du roi, frère de l'artiste".collections.louvre.fr(in French).Retrieved28 July2023.
- ^Bell, Esther (Fall 2016)."A Curator at the Louvre: Charles Coypel and the Royal Collections".Journal18.Louvre Local (2).doi:10.30610/2.2016.6.
- ^"Coypel, Charles Antoine".Benezit Dictionary of Artists.Oxford University Press.2011.doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00043957.ISBN978-0-19-977378-7.Retrieved28 July2023.
- ^Stein, Perrin (April 2001). "A Newly Discovered Pastel by Charles Coypel".The Burlington Magazine.143(1177): 220–223 – via JSTOR.
- ^abcdCharles-Antoine CoypelArchived2007-03-14 at theWayback MachineThe Getty Museum.
- ^Paulson, Ronald, 1998,Don Quixote in England: The Aesthetics of Laughter,Johns Hopkins University Press,ISBN0-8018-5695-7,p.45.
- ^Jenkins, D.T., 2003,The Cambridge History of Western Textiles,Cambridge University Press,ISBN0-521-34107-8,p.612.
- ^"Portrait of Philippe Coypel and His Wife".artic.edu.Retrieved28 July2023.
Further reading
editGeneral studies
editAdapted fromFreitag, Wolfgang M. (1997) [1985].Art Books: A Basic Bibliography of Monographs on Artists(2nd ed.). New York, London: Garland. p. 79, entries nos. 2340–2343.ISBN0-8240-3326-4.
- Ingersoll-Smouse, Florence (1920)."Charles-Antoine Coypel".La Revue de l'art ancien et moderne(in French).37:143–154, 285–292 – viaGallica.
- Jamieson, Irene (1930).Charles-Antoine Coypel, premier peintre de Louis XV et auteur dramatique (1694-1752)(in French). Paris: Hachette.OCLC490338910.
- Lefrançois, Thierry (1994).Charles Coypel: Peintre du Roi: 1694-1752(in French). Preface byPierre Rosenberg.Paris: Arthéna.ISBN2-903239-18-5.OCLC231852472.
Reference works
edit- Barker, Emma (1996)."Charles-Antoine Coypel".In Turner, Jane (ed.).The Dictionary of Art.Vol. 8. New York: Grove's Dictionaries. pp. 92–93.ISBN1-884446-00-0.OCLC1033653438– via the Internet Archive.
- Blumer, Marie-Louise (1961). "Coypel (Charles-Antoine)". In Roman d'Amat, Jean-Charles; et al. (eds.).Dictionnaire de biographie française(in French). Vol. 9. Paris: Letouzey et Ané. cols. 1146–1147.
- Cornu, Paul[in French](1913)."Coypel, Charles-Antoine".InThieme, Ulrich(ed.).Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler.Vol. 8. Leipzig: E. A. Seemann. pp. 26–28.OCLC1039527588– via the Internet Archive.
- Gallenkamp, George V. (1969)."Coypel, Charles-Antoine".In Myers, Bernard S. (ed.).McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Art.Vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 166.OCLC1231684719– via the Internet Archive.
- Lefrançois, Thierry (1999). "Coypel, Charles". In Kasten, Eberhard; et al. (eds.).Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon(in German). Vol. 22. München, Leipzig: Saur. pp. 99–101.ISBN3-598-22762-0.
Vignon, Charlotte (2015).Coypel's Don Quixote Tapestries: Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France.New York: The Frick Collection.ISBN9780912114620.OCLC890792980.
