LE NAIN brothers
French painters (b. 1598/1610, Laon, d. Louis and Antoine: 1648, Mathieu: 1677, Paris)

There were three brothers of this name, all born in Laon. Antoine was in Paris from 1629 and his two brothers Louis and Mathieu from 1630. They had established a common workshop in Paris. They remained unmarried and are traditionally said to have worked in harmony, often collaborating on the same picture. The "Le Nain problem" of determining which of them painted what is complicated because no signed work bears a first initial and no work completed after 1648 is dated. Evaluation of the three personalities early in the 20th century was therefore based on the dubious establishment of three stylistic groups. Art scholars today no longer try to attribute individual works, and the three brothers are treated as a single artist.

Preview Picture Data Info
Four Figures at Table
1630s
Oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm
National Gallery, London


Four Figures at a Table
1630s
Oil on canvas, 51 x 61 cm
Private collection


Four Figures at a Table (detail)
1630s
Oil on canvas
Private collection


Bacchus and Ariadne
c. 1635
Oil on canvas, 102 x 152 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans


Birth of the Virgin
c. 1645
Oil on canvas, 220 x 145 cm
Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris


Blacksmith at His Forge
c. 1640
Oil on canvas, 69 x 57 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


Peasants at their Cottage Door
1640s
Oil on canvas, 55 x 68 cm
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco


Preparing for Dancing School
after 1560
Oil on oak panel, 36 x 47 cm
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe


Family Group
1647
Oil on copper, 28 x 38 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


The Happy Family
1642
Oil on canvas, 61 x 78 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


Landscape with Peasants
c. 1640
Oil on canvas, 47 x 57 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington


Landscape with Peasants and a Chapel
-
Oil on canvas, 41 x 55 cm
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford


Milkmaid's Family
c. 1641
Oil on canvas, 51 x 59 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg


The Musical Reunion
1642
Oil on copper, 32 x 40 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


Three Young Musicians
c. 1630
Oil on panel, 27 x 34 cm
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles


Young Musicians
c. 1640
Oil on copper, 20 x 26 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid


Peasant Family
c. 1640
Oil on canvas, 113,3 x 159,5 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


Peasant Interior
1642
Oil on canvas, 56 x 65 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington


The Peasant Meal
1642
Oil on canvas, 97 x 122 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


The Village Piper
1642
Oil on copper, 23 x 31 cm
Institute of Arts, Detroit


Young Card Players
1643
Oil on copper mounted on panel, 30 x 39 cm
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown


The Resting Horseman
1640s
Oil on canvas, 55 x 67 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London


Smokers in an Interior
1643
Oil on canvas, 117 x 137 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


Smokers in an Interior (detail)
1643
Oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre, Paris


The Supper at Emmaus
1645
Oil on canvas, 75 x 92 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


The Cart or Return from Haymaking
1641
Oil on canvas, 56 x 72 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


Venus at the Forge of Vulcan
1641
Oil on canvas, 150 x 116,8 cm
Musée Saint-Denis, Reims


Allegory of Victory
c. 1635
Oil on canvas, 151 x 115 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


Visit to Grandmother
1645-48
Oil on canvas, 58 x 73 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg


Visit to Grandmother (detail)
1645-48
Oil on canvas
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg





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