The Beggars

genre

Toward 1637-38 Bourdon brought to Paris the fashion of the 'Bambocciata', the genre scenes of popular life in the suburbs of Rome made popular by the Netherlandish painter Pieter van Laer (known in Italy as Il Bamboccio). Bourdon was the one French painter who came under the influence of Poussin in Rome but who also retained his individuality. He is one of the few French painters of the 17th century who was equally adept at portrait, landscape, mythological and genre painting.

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About the Artist

Sébastien Bourdon

1616 – 1671

French painter. In 1634-7 he worked in Rome, where he developed a talent for imitating the work of other painters - Claude, Dughet, van Laer - sometimes probably with intent to deceive. He continued in this vein when he returned to France and his oeuvre is still ill-defined. From 1652 to 1654 he was court painter to Queen Christina of Sweden, of whom he did two portraits (Prado, Madrid, and National Museum, Stockholm), and after his return to France he worked mainly as a portraitist, developing a more personal style in which soft tonalities and skilful play with cascading draperies create a languorous, romantic effect (Self-portrait, Louvre, Paris).

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