Omer Talon
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 225 x 161.6 cm (88 9/16 x 63 5/8 in.) framed: 261.9 x 197.5 x 7 cm (103 1/8 x 77 3/4 x 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CF
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Accession Number
1952.5.35
Art Historical Context
Philippe de Champaigne'sOmer Talon* (1649) is a commanding oil-on-canvas portrait measuring nearly nine feet tall, capturing the French jurist and statesman in a moment of poised authority. Painted during a turbulent era in French history—the lead-up to the Frondeions—Talon, as Advocate General of the Parlement of Paris, embodied the era's intellectual and political elite. Champaigne, a leading Flemish-born artist in Louis XIV's France, renders him with stark realism, his black robes and white collar stark against a neutral background, emphasizing dignity over ornamentation. Champaigne's styl...
About the Artist
Philippe de Champaigne · 1602–1674
He was known as one of the greatest portrait painters of 17th-century France. His art was based in an analytical study of appearances and on psychological truth. He was also one of the principal instigators of the Classical tendency and a founder-member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. He developed an interest in Jansenist thinking, typified by a severe plainness of style. His ...