Dictionary of


Art  &  Artist




 

Claude Arnulphy 

 

Arnulphy Claude

(b Lyon or Grenoble, 1697; d Aix-en-Provence, 22 June 1786).

French painter. He was trained by his father, Charles Arnulphy ( fl 1688), and, apart from the traditional study visit to Rome, whence he returned in 1722, he spent his life in Aix-en-Provence. Among his earliest works was a Crucifixion (1722; priv. col.), which was his only historical subject, except for an altarpiece of Christ Showing his Heart to the Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque (1742) for the chapel of the Visitation in the church at Meyreuil, near Aix. Otherwise, Arnulphy worked exclusively as a portrait painter; his clients were the haute bourgeoisie and aristocracy of Provence. In 1783 he was appointed a ‘Peintre du Roi’; in 1765 he established in Aix an art school, in which he played a leading role. Arnulphy’s works, such as the informal portrait of Mme Simiane and her Granddaughter (1735; priv. col.) and the more official Portrait of a Magistrate (1745; Paris, priv. col.), are realistically detailed and employ a virtuoso technique but also have a certain stiffness and provincial quality.

Portrait de femme àa la robe brodee

Admiral Thomas Mathews

Portrait of Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil

Autoportrait