French painters, brothers, who came from Laon but had all moved to Paris by 1630. The traditional birthdates for Antoine and Louis are 1588 and 1593 respectively, but it is now thought likely that they were born around 1600, so that all three brothers were of much the same age. Mathieu was made painter to the city of Paris in 1633, and all three were foundation members of the Académie Royale (see academy) in 1648 (two months after its first meeting, Antoine and Louis died within days of each other, presumably of some contagious illness). Apart from this, little is known of their careers and the attribution of works to one or the other of them is fraught with difficulty and controversy, for such paintings as are signed bear only their surname, and of those that are dated none is later than 1648, when all were still alive.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


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