BOURDON, Sébastien
(b. 1616, Montpellier, d. 1671, Paris)

Moses and the Brazen Serpent

1653-54
Oil on canvas, 105 x 89 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Sébastien Bourdon represents the classicist and idealizing trend initiated by Nicolas Poussin, his contemporary and the leading French artist of the 17th century. Like Poussin, and like many other French and European artists, Bourdon made the obligatory study trip to Italy - to Rome, where he met Poussin, and to Venice, all of which influenced his style. In Venice he specialized in genre painting and in landscape in imitation of Claude Lorrain. Around 1640 he returned to France, and after some years in the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, he settled in Paris, where he acquired a great reputation. His painting of these French years shows its most obvious debt to Poussin.




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