Valentin de Boulogne. Beyond Caravaggio

Presentation

Considered the most brilliant of the painters coming in the wake of Caravaggio, and one of the greatest French artists—indeed, the equal of Poussin—Valentin de Boulogne (1591–1632) spent the greater part of his career in Rome executing prestigious papal commissions. His work was also collected by people in power, most notably Cardinal Mazarin and Louis XIV, and throughout the 19th century served as a model for masters as different as David and Courbet.

With all the freedom of Caravaggio—who also died in his prime—Valentin borrowed his predecessor’s dramatic realism, chiaroscuro, and subject matter (taverns, concerts, martyrs, saints, etc.), but transformed them, allying a neo-Venetian chromatic sensibility with a totally new sense of the grandiose and the melancholic.

Owner of the world’s largest collection of his works, the Louvre, in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is presenting the first monographic exhibition of the most significant representative of the Caravaggesque movement in Europe.

Organized by

Sébastien Allard, Director of the Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre.

Co-curators

Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman, Department of European Paintings (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Annick Lemoine, Scientific Director of the Festival of Art History and lecturer in art history (University of Rennes 2).