FRENCH PAINTING
1600-1700
During the 17th century, Paris became a centre of cultural and artistic achievement. The French state chose to express its power through the promotion and production of great works of art, founding a Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648. The power and self-confidence felt in France at this time is epitomised in Philippe de Champaigne's majestic likeness of Louis XIII's first minister, Cardinal de Richelieu.
Two of the most esteemed French artists settled in Italy. In 1624 Nicolas Poussin arrived in Rome, where he developed a classical style inspired by antique sculpture and Renaissance masters such as Raphael and Titian. Claude, moved by the warm Italian light and the Roman countryside, became the most successful landscape painter of the 17th century. His idealised compositions, often combining reality and invention, were sought after by prestigious patrons such as Pope Urban VIII and Philip IV of Spain.
