1606 -1656 · Paris, Fontainebleau, French Atticism and Classicism

Clear drawing, precious colors and orderly landscapes make Laurent de La Hyre one of the masters of Parisian Atticism.

Laurent de La Hyre was born in Paris in 1606 into a family of painters. Trained briefly with Georges Lallemant, he mainly studied the decorations of Primaticce in Fontainebleau and the Italian works accessible in French collections, without making the trip to Italy. His mannerist beginnings evolved in the 1630s towards a more constructed language, marked by Caravaggio then by a luminous and restrained classicism. The Hyre painted altarpieces, religious commissions, mythologies, allegories, tapestry cartoons and decorations of private mansions. A founding member of the Royal Academy in 1648, he became one of the major representatives of Parisian Atticism: clean drawing, composition measured and light colors oppose calm eloquence to the great Baroque movement. His allegories of arts and sciences give abstract ideas the presence of learned figures. In the landscapes, architecture, trees and characters are distributed in an almost musical order. Diane and her nymphs, Mercury entrusting Bacchus to the nymphs and the Landscape to the Pied Piper combine ideal nature, ancient story and silent poetry. The selection "Laurent de La Hyre" notably compares Allegory of Arithmetic and Diane and her nymphs in a landscape. His reading favors space.

The Hyre persuades without emphasis: a clear line, a fair color and an ordered space give the story all its eloquence.