Both Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674) and Adam Frans van der Meulen
(1634-1690), though born at Brussels, resided in France the best part
of their life, and are therefore generally classed with the painters of
the French school, which accounts for their being represented at the
Louvre in a manner which is quite out of proportion to their artistic
significance. Still, if Philippe de Champaigne appears second-rate when
compared with Rubens and Van Dyck, he is unquestionably the leading
portrait painter of the contemporary French school in which he received
his training. His powers were insufficient for the higher flights of
imagination, and when his ambition led him to such compositions as
_Christ in the House of Simon_ (No. 1927) or _Christ celebrating Easter
with His Disciples_ (No. 1928), he was as dull and bombastic as most
of his French contemporaries, whom he far excelled as a colourist.
His portraits, on the other hand, are painted in a broad, honest,
straightforward manner which has nothing in common with the monotonous
pompousness of his age, as may be seen from the admirable group of two
nuns in prayer, _Mother Catherine Agnes Arnaud and Sister Catherine de
Sainte-Suzanne_ (No. 1934). The younger of the two nuns represents the
artist’s daughter, who was healed from paralysis by a miracle recorded
by a Latin inscription on the wall. The twenty pictures from Philippe
de Champaigne’s brush, which are actually on view, also include
the fine group of the two architects _François Mansard and Claude
Perrault_ (No. 1944), bought in 1835 for the low price of £80; _The
Provost and Aldermen of Paris_ (No. 1945); and the signed and dated
portrait of _Robert Arnaud d’Andilly_ (No. 1939).