Antoine Le Nain (French, Laon, ?–Paris, 1648). Le Bénédicité (The Blessing), n.d. c. 1643. Oil on copper. Frick Art & Historical Center.

by Sarah Hall, Director of Curatorial Affairs

Although tiny (the entire painting is only about 5 ½ x 7”), the figures in Antoine Le Nain’s Le Bénédicité, are full of life—the faces are individually characterized, the eyes and faces expressive with a range of feeling from solemnity to sweetness to joy. The direct gaze and wonderful smile of the boy on the right imbues the whole composition with a feeling of affection and immediacy. A painting that at first appears a bit awkward  with a crowded composition, out of scale figures, and imperfect perspective, transforms with observation of these faces—and the boy’s smile is as charming as if he were standing at your elbow.

This little painting’s ability to fascinate has endured for nearly four hundred years, and its story is one with a dose of mystery. Antoine was the eldest of three brothers, all probably born between 1600 and 1610. The unmarried brothers lived together, shared the same Paris studio beginning in 1629, and closely collaborated on their work. This has resulted in “the Le Nain Problem.” How are the accomplishments of each to be separated from the work of the group? The paintings, though often signed, are never signed with anything more than the surname Le Nain, and all works that are dated fall between 1640–47.

All three brothers, including the youngest Mathieu, were accepted into the newly formed Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in March 1648. Unfortunately, two months later Antoine and Louis were dead, presumably victims of an unidentified epidemic. Antoine was buried May 26, 1648, two days after his brother Louis.

The 1993 catalogue raisonné compiled by art historian and former Louvre director Pierre Rosenberg divides the paintings into three distinct groups based on style. Seventeenth-century sources note that Antoine excelled in miniatures and portraits, which is why the small works painted on copper, like the Frick’s, are usually attributed to him. Further investigation has led scholars to feel that Louis is the “genius” of the family—the inventor of their particular brand of realism, which was strikingly out of step with much of the art in Baroque Europe, but vitally important to the development of the Realist movement 200 years later. Mathieu’s work is more easily identified, because he lived longer, and was for a time official painter to the city of Paris. Separating the works of Antoine and Louis is a speculative business that some historians find uncomfortable and inconclusive.

This painting shares its attention to detail, earthy palette, and dramatic lighting with the genre scenes produced in seventeenth-century Holland. Unlike Dutch paintings, which are often filled with symbolic objects, the work of the Le Nain brothers has a distinctive simplicity, which enhances the humanity of the subjects, and makes this painting very powerful, despite its diminutive size.