Simon Vouet (; 9 January 1590 – 30 June 1649) was a French painter who studied and rose to prominence in Italy before being summoned by Louis XIII to serve as Premier peintre du Roi in France. He and his studio of artists created religious and mythological paintings, portraits, frescoes, tapestries, and massive decorative schemes for the king and for wealthy patrons, including Cardinal Richelieu. During this time, "Vouet was indisputably the leading artist in Paris," and was immensely influential in introducing the Italian Baroque style of painting to France. He was also, according to Pierre Rosenberg, "without doubt one of the outstanding seventeenth-century draughtsmen, equal to Annibale Carracci and Lanfranco."

A major international exhibition of Vouet's work is planned for 2027, co-organized by the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris and the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco.

Career

Simon Vouet was born on January 9, 1590, in Paris. His father Laurent was a painter in Paris and taught him the rudiments of art. Simon's brother Aubin Vouet was also a painter, as also was Simon's wife Virginia da Vezzo, their son Louis-René Vouet, their two sons-in-law, Michel Dorigny and François Tortebat, and their grandson Ludovico Dorigny.thumbnail|left|260px|Virginia da Vezzo, the Artist's Wife, as the Magdalen (c. 1627), [[LACMA]]

Simon began his career as a portrait painter. At age 14 he travelled to England to paint a commissioned portrait and in 1611 was part of the entourage of the Baron de Sancy, French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, for the same purpose. From Constantinople he went to Venice in 1612 and was in Rome by 1614.

[[File:Simon Vouet - David with the Head of Goliath - Google Art Project.jpg|thumbnail|260px|David with the Head of Goliath (1620–1622), Palazzo Bianco, Genoa]]He remained in Italy until 1627, mostly in Rome where the Baroque style was becoming dominant. He received a pension from the King of France and his patrons included the Barberini family, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Paolo Giordano Orsini and Vincenzo Giustiniani.

Vouet's immense success in Rome led to his election as president of the Accademia di San Luca in 1624. His most prominent official commission of the Italian period was an altarpiece for St Peter's in Rome (1625–1626), destroyed at some time after 1725 (though fragments remain.)

thumbnail|260px|left|Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1624–1626) painted by [[Virginia da Vezzo, the first wife of Simon Vouet, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes]]In response to a royal summons, Vouet returned to France in 1627, where he was made Premier peintre du Roi. Louis XIII commissioned portraits, tapestry cartoons and paintings from him for the Palais du Louvre, the Palais du Luxembourg and the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In 1632, he worked for Cardinal Richelieu at the Palais-Royal and the Château de Malmaison. In 1631 he decorated the château of the président de Fourcy, at Chessy, the hôtel Bullion, the château of Marshal d'Effiat at Chilly, the hôtel of the Duc d’Aumont, the Séguier chapel, and the gallery of the Château de Wideville.

Today, a number of Vouet's paintings are lost, and "only two major decorative schemes survive, those for the chateaux of Colombes and Chessy,"

Though never entirely forgotten by connoisseurs and collectors (such as William Suida), Vouet fell into a relative obscurity that was not remedied until William R. Crelly's monograph of 1962, and catalogue, which Brejon de Lavergnée says fulfilled "its aim of rehabilitating the artist."

The exhibition's organizer, Jacques Thuillier, "is surely justified in claiming the altarpiece of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple as among the greatest masterpieces of seventeenth-century monumental painting," writes Brejon de Lavergnée, who further asserts that in the artist's works of the 1640s, such as Saint Francis of Paola Resuscitating a Child, "one can see Vouet concluding his career with pictures of an immense gravity informed by an intense spiritual energy. Images of the greatest force, these paintings constitute the apogee of French seventeenth-century painting."]]

Works

Paintings

Crelly's catalogue raisonné of 1962 lists more than 150 preserved paintings by Vouet. Since that publication, "a number of paintings, some of them of considerable importance, have turned up in various parts of the world and the list of his work continues to grow." A new catalogue raisonné, by Arnauld and Barbara Brejon de Lavergnée, is forthcoming. This is a partial list by present location, and then, as possible, by date.

Louvre, Paris

  • Prince Marcantonio Doria d'Angri (1621)
  • Saint William of Aquitaine (1622–1627)
  • The Holy Family with St Elisabeth and the Infant St John the Baptist (1625–1650)
  • Woman Wearing a White Veil (1630s)
  • Allegory of Wealth (c. 1635–1640)
  • Allegory of Charity (1630–1635)
  • Gaucher de Châtillon (1632–1635)
  • Allegory of Virtue (c. 1634)
  • Heavenly Charity (c. 1640)
  • Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (1641)
  • Hesselin Madonna or Madonna of the Oak Cutting (c.1640–1645)
  • Portrait of Louis XIII between two female figures symbolising France and Navarre (1643)
  • Portrait of a Young Man
  • Polymnia, Muse of Eloquence

Elsewhere in France

  • Presumed portrait of Aubin Vouet, the artist's brother (c. 1620), Musée Réattu, Arles
  • Anges portant les instruments de la Passion (1625), Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon
  • Cupid and Psyche (1626–1629), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
  • Self-portrait (1626–1627), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
  • Suite of the loves of Rinaldo and Armida (1631), based on Tasso's epic poem Jerusalem Delivered, collection of Guyot de Villeneuve, Paris
  • Repentant Magdalen (1633), Musée de Picardie, Amiens
  • Ceres Trampling the Attributes of War (1635), Musée des Beaux-arts Thomas Henry, Cherbourg-Octeville
  • Deposition of Christ (c.1635), Musée d'art moderne André Malraux, Le Havre
  • Lot and his Daughters (1633), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, subject of a special exhibit in 2005–2006
  • Crucifixion (1636–1637), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
  • The Four Cardinal Virtues—Allegory of Temperance, Allegory of Force, Allegory of Prudence, Allegory of Justice (1638), Salon de Mars, Versailles
  • Death of Dido (c. 1641), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole
  • Time Vanquished by Love, Venus and Hope (1640–1645), Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Bourges
  • Allégorie de la Charité (1640–1645; possibly a studio work), Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Draguignan
  • Last Supper, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Italy

  • Mary Magdalene (1614–1615), Quirinal Palace, Rome
  • Angel with Dice and Tunic and Angel with Spear of the Passion (1615–1625), Museo di Capodimonte, Naples
  • Last Supper (1616–1620), Palazzo Comunale, Loreto
  • Crucifixion (1621–6122), Chiesa del Gesù, Genoa
  • Young Man with a ruff (1620), Luigi Koeliker Collezione, Milano
  • David with the Head of Goliath (1620–1622), Palazzo Bianco, Genoa
  • Nativity of the Virgin (c. 1629), San Francesco a Ripa, Rome
  • Annunciation (c. 1621–1622), Uffizi, Florence
  • Circumcision of Jesus (1622), Museo di Capodimonte, Naples
  • Portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi with Painting Implements (c. 1623–1625), private collection
  • Temptation of Saint Francis and Saint Francis Renouncing His Goods (1624–1625), San Lorenzo in Lucina, Rome
  • Saint Agatha's Vision of Saint Peter in Prison (c. 1625), Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo

Elsewhere in Europe

  • The Annunciation (n.d.), Pushkin Museum, Moscow
  • Lovers (1614–1618), Pushkin Museum, Moscow
  • Judith (1620–1622), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • The Ill-Matched Couple (Vanitas) (c. 1621), National Museum, Warsaw
  • Sophonisba Receiving the Poisoned Chalice (c. 1623), Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden
  • Time Vanquished by Love, Beauty and Hope (1627), Prado, Madrid
  • Diana (1637), Cumberland Gallery, Hampton Court Palace, England
  • Sleeping Venus (1630–1640), Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
  • Parnassus, or Apollo and the Muses (c. 1640) Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
  • The Rape of Europa (1640), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
  • Artemisia Building the Mausoleum (early 1640s), Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
  • Judith, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
  • Saint Jerome (c.1620), National Library of Wales, Wales

United States

  • Saint Agnes (c. 1615), Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
  • The Halberdier (c. 1615–1620), Dayton Art Institute
  • Woman Playing a Guitar (c. 1618), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  • Portrait of a Gentleman (c. 1620), Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
  • Saint Luke and Saint John (1622–1625), Philadelphia Museum of Art
  • Saint Jerome and the Angel (c. 1622–1625), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Two Modelli for Altarpiece in St. Peter's (1625), LACMA, Los Angeles
  • Saint Sebastian (c. 1625), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
  • The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (1626), Legion of Honor, San Francisco
  • Saint Cecilia (c. 1626), Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
  • Salome (1626–1627), Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento
  • Angels with Attributes of the Passion: Angel Holding the Vessel and Towel for Washing the Hands of Pontius Pilate and Angel with the Superscription from the Cross (1627), Minneapolis Institute of Arts
  • Virginia da Vezzo, the Artist's Wife, as the Magdalen (c. 1627), LACMA, Los Angeles
  • Saint Mary Magdalen (c. 1630), Cleveland Museum of Art
  • Diana and Endymion and Neptune and Amphitrite (1630s), (c. 1620–1684), Legion of Honor, San Francisco

</gallery>

<gallery mode="nolines" widths="200" heights="200">

File:Simon Vouet--Self-portrait--Uffizi.tif|Simon Vouet, Self-portrait, Uffizi

File:Vouet--presumed self-portrait--1620-1625--Musée de Picardie.jpg|Simon Vouet, presumed self-portrait (c. 1620–1625), Musée de Picardie

File:Ottavio Leoni, Simon Vouet, 1625, NGA 945.jpg|Ottavio Leoni, Portrait of Simon Vouet (1625)

File:Vouet-autoportrait-lyon.jpg|Simon Vouet, Self-portrait (c.1626–1627) Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

File:Simon Vouet by Nicolas Mignard.jpg|Nicolas Mignard, Portrait of Simon Vouet

File:Perrier--Simon Vouet--engraving--1632.jpg|François Perrier, Portrait of Simon Vouet (1632)

File:Simon Vouet by Robert Van Voerst after Anthony van Dyck.jpg|Robert Van Voerst (after Anthony van Dyck), Portrait of Simon Vouet

File:Francois Tortebat--Portrait of Simon Vouet.jpg|Portrait of Simon Vouet by his son-in-law, François Tortebat, Versailles

File:Frederic Hillemacher--portrait of Simon Vouet--etching--1854--British Museum.jpg|Frédéric Hillemacher, Portrait of Simon Vouet (etching, 1854), British Museum

File:Simon Vouet - presumed portrait of Aubin Vouet - without frame.jpg|Simon Vouet, Presumed portrait of Aubin Vouet, the artist's brother (c. 1620), Musée Réattu, Arles

File:Vouet--Urulsa da Vezzo as St Catherine--1620s.jpg|Simon Vouet, Portrait of a Woman, Probably Ursula da Vezzo, Sister-in-Law of the Artist, as St. Catherine (c. 1620s), private collection

File:Simon Vouet Portrait of Virginia da Vezzo.JPG|Simon Vouet, fragment of a possible portrait of Virginia da Vezzo (c. 1624–26), Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

File:Claude_Mellan,_Virginia_da_Vezzo,_1626,_NGA_73730.jpg|Claude Mellan, Portrait of Virginia da Vezzo (1626), wife of Simon Vouet

File:Virginia da Vezzo, the Artist's Wife, as the Magdalen LACMA M.83.201.jpg|Simon Vouet, Virginia da Vezzo, the Artist's Wife, as the Magdalen (c. 1627), LACMA

File:Simon Vouet--Portrait of Angelique Vouet--Louvre.jpg|Simon Vouet, Portrait of Angélique Vouet (his daughter), pastel, Louvre

</gallery>

References

Bibliography

  • Bissell, R. Ward (2011). "Simon Vouet, Raphael, and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome." Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 32, No. 63 (2011), pp.&nbsp;55–72.
  • Blunt, Anthony. "Some Portraits by Simon Vouet." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 88, No. 524 (Nov., 1946), pp.&nbsp;268+270-271+273.
  • Brejon de Lavergnée, Arnauld. "Four New Paintings by Simon Vouet." The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 124, No. 956 (Nov., 1982), pp.&nbsp;685–689.
  • Brejon de Lavergnée, Arnauld. "Paris: Vouet at the Grand Palais" (review of the exhibition). The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 133, No. 1055 (Feb., 1991), pp.&nbsp;136–140.
  • Brejon de Lavergnée, Arnauld. "Simon Vouet. Nantes and Besançon" (review of the exhibition). The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 151, No. 1272 (Mar., 2009), pp.&nbsp;187–189.
  • Brejon de Lavergnée, Barbara. Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, Inventaire général des dessins, École française, Dessins de Simon Vouet 1590–1649. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1987. (Comprehensive catalogue of the drawings of Vouet in the Louvre and elsewhere.)
  • Brejon de Lavergnée, Barbara. "New Attributions around Simon Vouet." Master Drawings, Vol. 23/24, No. 3 (1985/1986), pp.&nbsp;347–351+425-432.
  • Brejon de Lavergnée, Barbara. "Some New Pastels by Simon Vouet: Portraits of the Court of Louis XIII." The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 124, No. 956 (Nov., 1982), pp.&nbsp;688–691+693.
  • Crelly, William R. The Painting of Simon Vouet. Yale University Press, 1962.
  • Fredericksen, Burton B. "Two Newly Discovered Ceiling Paintings by Simon Vouet." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Vol. 5 (1977), pp.&nbsp;95–100.
  • Gomez, Susana. "The Encounter of the Emblematic Tradition with Optics. The Anamorphic Elephant of Simon Vouet". Nuncius: Journal of the Material and Visual History of Science, vol. 31, issue 2 (2016), pp.&nbsp;288–331.
  • Loire Stéphane, editor. Simon Vouet: actes du colloque international Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 5-6-7 février 1991. Paris: Publication Information, c1992.
  • Loth et ses filles de Simon Vouet: Éclairages sur un chef-d'œuvre (catalogue of the exhibition). Strasbourg: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, 2005.
  • Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. "The Repentant Magdalene by Simon Vouet." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 80, No. 4 (Apr., 1993), pp.&nbsp;158–163.
  • Manning, Robert. "Some Important Paintings by Simon Vouet in America" in Studies in the History of Art, Dedicated to William E. Suida on His Eightieth Birthday. Kress Foundation/Phaidon Press, 1959.
  • Markova, Vittoria. "A New Painting by Vouet in Russia." The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 132, No. 1050 (Sept., 1990), pp.&nbsp;632–633.
  • Posner, Donald. "The Painting of Simon Vouet " (book review). The Art Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Sept., 1963), pp. 286–291.
  • Rice, Louise. "Simon Vouet's Hesperus and the Mythopoetics of Praise." Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 74, Symposium Papers LI: Dialogues in Art History, from Mesopotamian to Modern: Readings for a New Century (2009), pp. 236–251.
  • Schleier, Erich. "A Bozzetto by Vouet, Not by Lanfranco." The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 109, No. 770 (May, 1967), pp. 272+274-276.
  • Schleier, Erich. "Two New Modelli for Vouet's St. Peter's Altarpiece." The Burlington Magazine Vol. 114, No. 827 (Feb., 1972), pp. 90–94.
  • Schleier, Erich. "Vouet's Destroyed St Peter Altar-Piece: Further Evidence." The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 110, No. 787 (Oct., 1968), pp. 572–575.
  • Simon Vouet: 100 neuentdeckte Zeichnungen: aus den Beständen der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (catalogue of the exhibition). München: Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, 1991.
  • Simon Vouet ou l'éloquence sensible: Dessins de la Staatsbibliothek de Munich (catalogue of the exhibition). Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux; Nantes: Musée des beaux-arts de Nantes, c. 2002.
  • Simon Vouet: les années italiennes, 1613–1627 (catalogue of the exhibition). Paris: Hazan; Nantes: Musée des beaux-arts; Besançon: Musée des beaux-arts et d'archéologie, 2008.
  • Thuillier, Jacques. Vouet: Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 6 novembre 1990-11 février 1991 (catalogue of the exhibition). Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, c. 1990.
  • Three portraits by the artist who taught Louis XIII to draw, auctioned at Christie's 27 May 2020
  • Simon Vouet at Google Arts & Culture
  • Works at WGA
  • Simon Vouet paintings at the Hearst Castle in California
  • Simon Vouet's Saint Agnes, Saint Cecilia, and Portrait of a Gentleman at the Blanton Museum of Art
  • Simon Vouet at the J. Paul Getty Museum
  • Self-Portrait of Vouet, with fashion notes at Arte|Moda Archive, University of Bergamo
  • Article about Vouet and his wife and fellow painter Virginia da Vezzo (in Italian)
  • Sylvain Kerspern on portraits depicting Simon Vouet (in French)
  • L'homme à la figue (Man with figs), a look at the coded sexual meaning of Vouet's painting at Caen (in French)