Arnould de Vuez


Arnould de Vuez was a painter of Flemish origin active in Lille from 1680 to 1720.

Life

Family and training

Arnould de Vuez was born in 1644 in Saint-Omer. His father served as a soldier in order to feed his 8 children. Arnould left his birthplace for Paris to perfect his painting technique in the studio of Luc, a Récollet monk. He then moved to live with his uncle, a canon at Venice then Rome, where he won first prize for drawing at the Accademia di San Luca.

Career

Back in Paris, Arnould was under the protection of Charles Le Brun at the court of Louis XIV. A may at Notre Dame de Paris commissioned Arnould to paint "The Incredulity of St Thomas", held since the French Revolution at the primatiale st Jean de Lyon. On Lebrun's death Arnould established himself in Lille for fifty years, and the town was to offer him many opportunities. Since its conquest by Louis XIV the town was newly being redeveloped and Arnould de Vuez received commissions from religious institutions in the town and its surroundings, including the Hospice Comtesse and the Carmelites at Lille, the Carmelites at Douai, the Benedictines at Marchiennes and the Jesuits at Cambrai. His style was strongly influenced by the Italian Renaissance and the sense of colour in Flemish artists like Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.
In 2018, de Vuez's painting of the Marquis de Nointel arriving in Jerusalem was discovered in well-preserved condition, behind the wall of a Paris apartment at, 4 during its renovation into an Oscar de la Renta boutique. The artwork glued to the wall was hidden during occupation of Paris probably. It's reproduced as a rotogravure in the 1900 book by Albert Vandal Odyssey of an Ambassador: The Travels of the Marquis de Nointel, 1670-1680.

Selected works