The Story
The Jabach Family by Charles Le Brun. Purchase, Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gift, in honor of Keith Christiansen, 2014
Created in 1665 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Charles Le Brun worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 110 1/4 × 129 1/8 in. (280 × 328 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Charles Le Brun builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
