LA FOSSE, Charles de

During the later 1670s La Fosse was mainly occupied as the assistant of Le Brun, first at the Tuileries and then at Versailles, where he was responsible for part of the painted decoration in the Salon de Diane and for the whole of that in the Salon d’Apollon. Here his tendencies towards a light and rather free style were held in check by the control of Le Brun, and the panels which he painted for these rooms are the most classical works which he produced.

The picture shows the painted ceiling in the Salon of Apollo in the King’s apartments at Versailles. It represents Apollo in his chariot, accompanied by the figure of France and the procession of the Seasons.

During the later 1670s La Fosse was mainly occupied as the assistant of Le Brun, first at the Tuileries and then at Versailles, where he was responsible for part of the painted decoration in the Salon de Diane and for the whole of that in the Salon d’Apollon. Here his tendencies towards a light and rather free style were held in check by the control of Le Brun, and the panels which he painted for these rooms are the most classical works which he produced.

The picture shows the painted ceiling in the Salon of Apollo in the King’s apartments at Versailles. It represents Apollo in his chariot, accompanied by the figure of France and the procession of the Seasons.

At the royal château of Marly, La Fosse shared a commission around the turn of the century for a set of Four Seasons with Louis de Boullongne, Antoine Coypel, and Jouvenet. While Jouvenet was suitably assigned the male subject of Winter, La Fosse no less suitably dealt with Autumn, in the persons of Bacchus and Ariadne. This is no dramatic encounter of god and mortal girl but, La Fosse shows them in happy, graceful dialogue, and amused rather than disturbed by the loyal barking of Ariadne’s pet dog. It is the picture’s glowing, half-autumnal tonality, not its somewhat inert composition, that makes it attractive, combined with its sensuous paint surface.

By 1687, the marble Trianon was nearing completion on the grounds of Versailles, and the following year a series of paintings was planned for each room.Mythology in its graceful rather than heroic form stimulated La Fosse’s lively overdoor paintings, including the exquisite Clytie Transformed into a Sunflower.

A Greek myth tells how Clytie, the daughter of a king of Babylon, was forsaken in love by the sun-god Apollo because he turned his attention to her sister Leucothea. Clytie’s jealousy was the cause of her sister’s death. She herself, still spurned by the god, slowly wasted away and turned into the flower that always turns its face toward the sun. The marigold, which has this property, is likely to have been the flower of the Greek myth.

In the 1680s de la Fosse turned to Rubens as a model and an inspiration. The effect of this admiration is evident in the figures of the Sacrifice of Iphigenia over the mantelpiece of the Salon de Diane at Versailles and in the landscape of the Finding of Moses, but it is in the Presentation of the Virgin, dated 1682, that the full effects of this new taste appear. This picture is closer to the mature manner of Rubens and more fully Baroque in its conception than anything that had been produced in France up to this date.

Of the various artists who were responsible for the transformation of French painting at the last decades of the seventeenth century the most original was Charles de la Fosse. He begun his training under Le Brun, but his evolution was much more deeply affected by his visit to Italy, where he spent the years 1658-60 in Rome and the following three years in Venice, also visiting Modena and Parma. He returned to France armed with a knowledge of the latest Roman manner, that of Pietro da Cortona and his followers, but with a stronger leaning towards north Italian artists, particularly Veronese and Correggio. The results can be seen in his Diploma piece, the Rape of Proserpine, in which the landscape is purely Venetian in feeling while the figures show a curious mixture of influences from Albani and the late Poussin.

In the 1680s de la Fosse turned to Rubens as a model and an inspiration. The effect of this admiration is evident in the figures of the Sacrifice of Iphigenia over the mantelpiece of the Salon de Diane at Versailles and in the landscape of the Finding of Moses, but it is in the Presentation of the Virgin, dated 1682, that the full effects of this new taste appear. This picture is closer to the mature manner of Rubens and more fully Baroque in its conception than anything that had been produced in France up to this date.

In 1692 La Fosse, who had been working for the Duke of Montagu in London since 1689, was called back to Paris to undertake the decoration of the church of Les Invalides which Hardouin-Mansart had just completed. At first he was commissioned by Hardouin-Mansart to paint the whole building, but gradually other patrons pressed the claims of their favourite artists -Michel Corneille the Younger, Jean Jouvenet, Noël Coypel, Bon and Louis Boullogne - and the share of La Fosse was reduced to the painting of the outer dome and four pendentives.

The subject of the dome fresco is St Louis Presenting to Christ the Sword with which he has Vanquished the Enemies of the church, a theme which combines Louis XIV’s new religious enthusiasm with the veneration for his great ancestor, who is depicted in royal robes and in the likeness of the donor. La Fosse has based his design on Correggio, but he has greatly lightened his model by putting all the figures near the edge of the circle and so leaving the middle of the field for the open sky. In this way he gives a certain Rococo lightness to what is basically a Baroque composition.

In 1692 La Fosse, who had been working for the Duke of Montagu in London since 1689, was called back to Paris to undertake the decoration of the church of Les Invalides which Hardouin-Mansart had just completed. At first he was commissioned by Hardouin-Mansart to paint the whole building, but gradually other patrons pressed the claims of their favourite artists -Michel Corneille the Younger, Jean Jouvenet, Noël Coypel, Bon and Louis Boullogne - and the share of La Fosse was reduced to the painting of the outer dome and four pendentives.

The subject of the dome fresco is St Louis Presenting to Christ the Sword with which he has Vanquished the Enemies of the church, a theme which combines Louis XIV’s new religious enthusiasm with the veneration for his great ancestor, who is depicted in royal robes and in the likeness of the donor. La Fosse has based his design on Correggio, but he has greatly lightened his model by putting all the figures near the edge of the circle and so leaving the middle of the field for the open sky. In this way he gives a certain Rococo lightness to what is basically a Baroque composition.

In 1692 La Fosse, who had been working for the Duke of Montagu in London since 1689, was called back to Paris to undertake the decoration of the church of Les Invalides which Hardouin-Mansart had just completed. At first he was commissioned by Hardouin-Mansart to paint the whole building, but gradually other patrons pressed the claims of their favourite artists -Michel Corneille the Younger, Jean Jouvenet, Noël Coypel, Bon and Louis Boullogne - and the share of La Fosse was reduced to the painting of the outer dome and four pendentives.

The subject of the dome fresco is St Louis Presenting to Christ the Sword with which he has Vanquished the Enemies of the church, a theme which combines Louis XIV’s new religious enthusiasm with the veneration for his great ancestor, who is depicted in royal robes and in the likeness of the donor. La Fosse has based his design on Correggio, but he has greatly lightened his model by putting all the figures near the edge of the circle and so leaving the middle of the field for the open sky. In this way he gives a certain Rococo lightness to what is basically a Baroque composition.

In 1692 La Fosse, who had been working for the Duke of Montagu in London since 1689, was called back to Paris to undertake the decoration of the church of Les Invalides which Hardouin-Mansart had just completed. At first he was commissioned by Hardouin-Mansart to paint the whole building, but gradually other patrons pressed the claims of their favourite artists -Michel Corneille the Younger, Jean Jouvenet, Noël Coypel, Bon and Louis Boullogne - and the share of La Fosse was reduced to the painting of the outer dome and four pendentives.

The subject of the dome fresco is St Louis Presenting to Christ the Sword with which he has Vanquished the Enemies of the church, a theme which combines Louis XIV’s new religious enthusiasm with the veneration for his great ancestor, who is depicted in royal robes and in the likeness of the donor. La Fosse has based his design on Correggio, but he has greatly lightened his model by putting all the figures near the edge of the circle and so leaving the middle of the field for the open sky. In this way he gives a certain Rococo lightness to what is basically a Baroque composition.

This painting is related to the ceiling painting in the Apollo Salon in Versailles.

The two paintings, Eliezer and Rebecca by Antoine Coypel and the Finding of Moses by Charles de La Fosse, were commissioned in 1701 for the Cabinet du Billard at Versailles. They reveal the profound changes taking place in French painting at the beginning of the 18th century.

After the reorganization of the Paris Academy in 1661 by Louis XIV (whose aim was to control all the artistic activity in France) a controversy occurred among the members that was to dominate artistic attitudes for the rest of the century. This was what has been described as the ‘battle of styles’, the conflict over whether Rubens or Poussin was a suitable model to follow. Poussin’s art from his mature period was an ideal model for an academic teacher because his pictures followed such a precise sequence of rules in the placing of figures and in facial expressions. OPn the other hand, the sensuality of Rubens, both in form and colour, was an ideal model to imitate when painting on a grand scale was required, especially for a palace decoration. The sides were never reconciled in theory: the views of the Rubenists and the Poussinists were too opposed; but a surprising number of painters combined the characteristics of both sources, to produce a hybrid art that set the standard for the rest of the century.

One of the earliest and best of the painters involved in the battle of styles was Charles de La Fosse whose style already looks forward to the 18th century. La Fosse’s colour is Rubensian, but his compositions are classically inspired. Few painters of the time had La Fosse’s energy, and his most important achievement was the decoration of the interior of the dome of Les Invalides in Paris toward the end of his career in the 1690s.

The Finding of Moses is remarkable for its use of light and fresh colour sense.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 5 minutes):

Gioacchino Rossini: Moses, Moses’ Prayer

This painting is in the apse of the chapel where later the ceiling was painted by Antoine Coypel.