Before passing on to Vouet’s most famous pupil, Charles Le Brun,
whose despotic power imposed upon French painting during the “_grand
siècle_” its pompous rhetorical character, mention should be made of
Sébastien Bourdon (1616-1671), who, but for his prolonged sojourn in
Rome, which fed his ambition to excel in the “grand style,” would
have been one of the most remarkable artists of his century. This
conclusion is, at least, justified by his precious little painting of
a group of _Beggars_ (No. 76), which is perhaps unrivalled in French
seventeenth-century art for quality of paint and appreciation of
tone values; and by his excellent _Portrait of the Philosopher René
Descartes_ (No. 78), who was also painted by Frans Hals (No. 2383). In
his treatment of scriptural and historical subjects he does not rise
above the dull level of his contemporaries.