^
>Died on 15 October 1690: Adam Frans van der Meulen,
Flemish Baroque
painter, draftsman, and tapestry designer, active also in France, baptized
as an infant on 11 January 1632. He was the brother-in-law of Adriaen
Frans Boudewyns.
— Van der Meulen was trained by the court painter Pieter Snayers of
Brussels. His first work as an independent artist was done in Brussels.
He painted genre and history pieces. Fifteen years later he moved to Paris
where he entered the service of King Louis XIV [05 Sep 1638 – 01 Sep
1715]. Van der Meulen immortalized Louis's military successes. He went on
campaigns and sketched in the field, later elaborating his studies in the
studio to make paintings or cartoons for tapestries to be produced in the
Manufacture Royale des Gobelins. Van der Meulen was successful at court.
He was appointed to a high position in the Royal Academy, the most powerful
bastion of the arts.
— He was the eldest son of the seven children of Pieter van der Meulen
and his second wife Marie van Steen Wegen. He went to study under Pieter
Snayers, court painter in Brussels, on 18 May 1646, and in 1651 he became
a master in the Brussels painters’ guild. Probably soon after he married
Catherina Huseweel. During the first 15 years of his career, the so-called
Brussels period, he painted small-scale genre and history scenes with political
and military events in the Baroque style of Sebastiaen Vrancx, Pieter Snayers,
and Jan Breughel the elder. Typical examples are A Cavalry Battle
(1653.), a Ceremonial Entry into Brussels (1659), A General
on Campaign (1660) and a Hunting Scene (1662). His only religious
subject, The Crucifixion, also dates from these years. He moved
to Paris in 1664, became an assistant to Le
Brun and was made one of Louis XIV court painters, specializing in military
scenes. He accompanied the king on his campaigns, and his paintings and
designs for Gobelins tapestries are accurate historical documents of the
battles which they represent. He also made much less grandiose pictures
of such subjects as hunting parties and landscapes.
–- FRANCOIS
VANDER MEVLEN NATIF DE BRVXELLES, PEINTRE ORDINAIRE DE L'HISTOIRE DV ROY
TRES-CHRETIEN (1687, 52x39cm; 1211x904pix, 160kb _ .ZOOM
to 2430x1814pix, 1143kb) engraved by Pieter L. van Schuppen after a painting
by Nicolas de Largillière [10 Oct
1656 – 20 Mar 1746].
— LINKS
— Le
Passage du Rhin par l'Armée Française à Lobith, le
12 juin 1672 (1672, 103x159cm) _ The Rhine near Lobith in Gelderland,
in the east of the Netherlands. Under cover of cannon fire, the French soldiers
are descending the river banks. Some of them are wading across. On the opposite
bank, they are met by the Dutch cavalry. These soldiers too have begun to
cross the river on horseback. The round tower of the Lobith toll house in
the background has been hit by French fire. There is a man on a dappled
gray wearing a red and blue brocaded uniform. Around his middle he is wearing
a white sash. This is the King of France himself: Louis XIV. With his right
hand he directs his troops across the river. He is surrounded by officers.
It was 12 June 1672 when French troops crossed the Rhine. They followed
directions from a local farmer who knew exactly where the river could be
forded. The defenses of this crucial spot left a lot to be desired. General
De Montbas of the Dutch cavalry had left for Arnhem with his men two days
earlier. On the eve of the French invasion, the Dutch troops were hastily
sent to Lobith. With artillery cover, the French managed to cross the river.
The French invasion took place in 1672, the Disaster Year, when Münster,
Cologne and England all declared war on the Republic. With an army of 120'000
men - the largest Europe had seen since the Roman Empire - Louis XIV marched
into the Netherlands. He came as far as the border with the province of
Holland where, without too much trouble, the French captured the fortified
town of Naarden. However, the Dutch had closed the route to Amsterdam by
breaking the Zuider Zee dyke to the north of Naarden - the Dutch Waterline
of defense was born. Flooding the land was for centuries a key aspect of
Dutch defense strategy. The idea was to be able to protect the west of the
country from an army invading by land. Holland's water line ran from Muiden
on the Zuiderzee to Schoonhoven on the Lek, and on to Heusden on the Maas.
Van der Meulen had entered the service of Louis XIV in 1664. He specialized
in painting field battles. This painting was made by van der Meulen from
a sketch made on the spot. To do this he traveled with the French army.
Besides the court painters, Louis XIV was also accompanied by noblemen and
women during his campaigns. _ See Allegory
of the Disaster Year 1672 (43x38cm; 1600x1384pix, 231kb) by Jan
van Wijckersloot.
— L'Armée
de Louis XIV devant Tournai en 1667 (1684, 207x345cm; 704x1175pix, 162kb)
_ On the death of Philip IV of Spain, Louis XIV claimed the Low Countries
and the Franche-Comté in the name of his wife Marie-Thérèse. This policy
of conquest led the king to the gates of Tournai in 1667 during the so-called
War of Devolution. The city, badly protected by the old 13th century town
wall, could offer little resistance. It was besieged on 21 June 1667, capitulated
on the 23rd, and the king made a triumphal entry on the 25th. The treaty
of Aachen, on 02 May 1668, marked its attachment to France.
Here the artist has depicted, not the siege
of the city, but the setting up of the camp with, in the middle ground,
the deployment of the troops and, in the background, the city, recognizable
by its superb cathedral. Camp life is described by a multitude of picturesque
details, admirably painted and treated with vigour. The group of unsaddled
horses to the left, a type of depiction in which Van der Meulen excelled,
is particularly successful. A few touches of red, blue, and yellow enliven
the whole. Groups of trees carry the eye to the brightly-lit plain where
the musketeers are parading in blue uniforms and the light cavalry of the
guard in red. In the background Tournai, seen from the north-east, spreads
out its monuments behind its medieval walls. To the left of the cathedral
we make out the imposing Saint Martin's Abbey with its narrow spire and
the massive tower of Saint Brice. On the other side of the five belfries
and above the Romanesque nave, we glimpse the tower of the now demolished
Saint Nicaise's Church. Preparatory drawings were done by the artist in
situ during his journey in 1667, following the French troops.
After joining Charles Le Brun at the Manufacture
des Gobelins in 1664, Van der Meulen was commissioned with drawing the views
of the cities conquered by the king. The Brussels painting belongs to the
first series of the King's Conquests, painted for the Royal Pavilion in
Marly and placed in 1684, covering the various campaigns in Flanders, Franche-Comté
and Holland. Designed as decoration, this series is remarkable for its variety
and for its painting quality. Whilst the Brussels artist took French nationality
in 1673, he never, in his art, denied his Flemish origins. Here he imparts
a new dimension to the painting of battle scenes, achieving the right balance
between military scenes, topographical descriptions and landscapes.
— Construction
du Château de Versailles (1669, 103x139cm; 920x1066pix, 158kb) _ The
Château de Versailles, a 17th-century palace built by Louis XIV, was the
principal residence of the kings of France and the seat of the royal government
for more than 100 years. The first scenes of the French Revolution were
also enacted at the palace, whose gardens, the masterpiece of André Le Nôtre,
have become part of the national heritage of France and one of the most
visited historic sites in Europe. Although it was a place of entertainment,
the grandiose palace was also well equipped as a center of government. Of
about 20'000 persons attached to the court, some 1000 courtiers with 4000
attendants lived in the palace itself. About 14'000 soldiers and servants
were quartered in annexes and in the town, which was founded in 1671 and
had 30'000 inhabitants when Louis XIV died in 1715.
The palace of Versailles led to the French
court style in interior decoration and furnishings, as well as in exterior
decoration and gardens. Versailles was intended to be the outward and visible
expression of the glory of France, and of Louis XIV, then Europe's most
powerful monarch. His finance minister, Colbert, set up a manufacture that
made works of art of all kinds, from furniture to jewelry, for interior
decoration. A large export trade took French styles to almost every corner
of Europe, made France a center for luxuries, and gave to Paris an influence
that has lasted till the present day. The vast initial cost of Versailles
has been more than recouped since its completion. Even Louis XIV's most
violent enemies imitated the decoration of his palace at Versailles. In
1667 Charles Le Brun was appointed director of the Gobelins factory, which
had been bought by the King, and Le Brun himself prepared designs for various
objects, from the painted ceilings of the Galerie des Glaces {Hall of Ice-Cream?
... no... of Mirrors} at Versailles to the metal hardware for a door lock.
— Louis
XIV at the Taking of Besançon (1674; 575x692pix, 157kb)
–- Landscape,
Horses Drawing Cart Loaded With Bales (etching 18x26cm; 928x1339pix,
483kb)
—(070110) |
—
{There is absolutely no truth to the story that his ghost haunted Heinz
Company executive meetings until they reluctantly agreed to gradually introduce
a whole palette of colors for their ketchup, so that kids could develop
their talents by playing with their food artistically, for example decorating
hamburgers not only in tomato red, but also in Blastin' Green, Funky Purple,
pink, orange, teal, Stellar Blue, etc., or any mixture thereof.}
