born May 26, 1602, Brussels
died Aug. 12, 1674, Paris, Fr.
Flemish-born French painter.
Trained in Brussels, he arrived in Paris in 1621. His patrons included Louis XIII , Marie de Médicis , and Cardinal Richelieu , and he became the outstanding French portraitist of the Baroque period. He became a professor at the Royal Academy (1653) and produced many pieces for the palaces and churches of Paris. His finest work includes two portraits of Richelieu and various paintings for the Jansenist Convent of Port-Royal, especially the austere Ex-voto: Mother Agnès and Sister Catherine (1662), commemorating his daughter Catherine's miraculous cure through Mother Agnès's prayers.