Coypel, Noël

▪ French artist

born Dec. 25, 1628, Paris, France

died Dec. 24, 1707, Paris

      French Baroque historical painter who was the founding member of a dynasty of painters and designers employed by the French court during the late 17th and 18th centuries.

      Made an academician in 1663, Coypel served as director of the French Academy in Rome from 1672 to 1676, and in 1695 he was made director of the Royal Academy in Paris. Although Noël Coypel is primarily known as one of the principal producers of decorative paintings for Louis XIV at the palaces of the Tuileries (Tuileries Palace), the Louvre (Louvre Museum), and Versailles (Versailles, Palace of), he is also renowned for such important ecclesiastical commissions as the well-known painting of The Martyrdom of St. James in Notre Dame, Paris. Stylistically his mature works show the influence of Charles Le Brun (Le Brun, Charles); but his earlier paintings were in the manner of Poussin (Poussin, Nicolas), and for this reason he was sometimes called Coypel le Poussin.

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