Portrait of Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus

Philippe de Champaigne accompanied Rubens to Paris in 1621 when the latter decorated the Luxembourg Palace. After Rubens' departure De Champaigne remained in the French capital, where he was soon appointed court painter. The Portrait of Jean-Pierre Camus dates from 1643. Camus, Bishop of Bellay and later of Arras, was the celebrated author of numerous saints’ lives. He is dressed…

Philippe de Champaigne accompanied Rubens to Paris in 1621 when the latter decorated the Luxembourg Palace. After Rubens' departure De Champaigne remained in the French capital, where he was soon appointed court painter. The Portrait of Jean-Pierre Camus dates from 1643. Camus, Bishop of Bellay and later of Arras, was the celebrated author of numerous saints’ lives. He is dressed in a monk’s grey habit, with just a modest crucifix to indicate his status as bishop. The strong realism and serene expression of this portrait are more closely related to fifteenth-century Flemish portrait-painting than to the Baroque.