PHILIPPE DE

CHAMPAIGNE (1602-1674)  , Belgian painter of the French school, was born at Brussels of a poor family . He was a pupil of J . Fouquieres; and, going to Paris in 1621, was employed by N . Du Chesne to paint along with Nicholas Poussin in the palace of the Luxembourg . His best works are to be found at Vincennes, and in the church of the Carmelites at Paris, where is his celebrated Crucifix, a signal perspective success, on one of the vaultings . After the death of Du Chesne, Philippe became first painter to the queen of France, and ultimately rector of the Academy of Paris . As his age advanced and his health failed, he retired to Port Royal, where he had a daughter cloistered as a nun, of whom (along with Catherine Agnes Arnauld) he painted a celebrated picture, now in the Louvre, highly remark-able for its solid unaffected truth . This, indeed, is the general character of his work,—grave reality, without special elevation or depth of character, or charm of warm or stately colour . He produced an immense number of paintings, religious and other subjects as well as portraits, dispersed over various parts of France, and now over the galleries of Europe . Philippe was a good man, indefatigable, earnest and scrupulously religious . He died on the 12th of August 1694 .