1735 -1784 · Paris and Royal Academy

Domestic intimacy, absorbed children and the ambition of history painting make Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié a sensitive voice of the French 18th century.

Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié was born in Paris in 1735 and died there in 1784. Son of engravers, he learned drawing very early before training with Carle Van Loo. Received at the Royal Academy then appointed professor, he led a dual career as a history painter and observer of daily life. Achille, instructed in music by the centaur Chiron, displays the scholarly register: heroic bodies, educational gestures and mythological landscapes give learning an exemplary scope. Conversely, The Reading Lesson, The Young Designer or Mother feeding her child bring the gaze closer to a calm interior. Conversely, The Reading Lesson, The Young Designer or Mother feeding her child bring the gaze closer to a calm interior. The Louvre dates The Young Designer around 1769 -1772 while maintaining a point questioning attribution. The child leaning over his notebook embodies a concentration that Lépicié observes without caricature. Brown, red and cream tones, soft light and modest objects build a moral intimacy close to Chardin, but more narrative. Lépicié in turn trains several artists, including Carle Vernet, and contributes to the transition between 18th century sensitivity and neoclassical rigor. The "Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié" selection notably compares Achille, educated in music by Chiron and Le Jeune Dessinateur. His reading favors the story.

Lépicié gives the gesture of learning a pictorial dignity: reading, drawing or listening becomes a little story of concentration and transmission.