![Charles Le Brun - Dead Christ on the Knees of the Virgin [c.1643-45] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5510/9551285395_18dcf069c4.jpg)
Charles Le Brun - Dead Christ on the Knees of the Virgin [c.1643-45], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.
Charles Le Brun (Paris, February 24, 1619 - Paris, February 22, 1690) was a French painter and art theorist. Le Brun primarily worked for King Louis XIV, for whom he executed large altarpieces and battle pieces. His most important paintings are at Versailles. Besides his gigantic labours at Versailles and the Louvre, the number of his works for religious corporations and private patrons is enormous. Le Brun was also a fine portraitist and an excellent draughtsman, but he was not fond of portrait or landscape painting, which he felt to be a mere exercise in developing technical prowess. What mattered was scholarly composition, whose ultimate goal was to nourish the spirit. The fundamental basis on which the director of the Academy based his art was unquestionably to make his paintings speak, through a series of symbols, costumes and gestures that allowed him to select for his composition the narrative elements that gave his works a particular depth. For Le Brun, a painting represented a story one could read. Nearly all his compositions have been reproduced by celebrated engravers.
[Louvre Museum, Paris - Oil on canvas, 146 x 222 cm]