At fifteen he received commissions from Cardinal Richelieu, in the execution of which he displayed an ability which obtained the generous commendations of Nicolas Poussin, in whose company Le Brun started for Rome in 1642.

[4] While in Rome, Le Brun studied ancient Roman sculpture, made copies after Raphael, and absorbed the influence of the local painters.

[5] On his return to Paris in 1646, Le Brun found numerous patrons, of whom Nicholas Fouquet was the most important,[3] for whom he painted a large portrait of Anne of Austria.

Le Brun was the driving force behind the establishment of the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648, and was elected as one of the original twelve elders in charge of its running.

[1] When Colbert took control of the institution in 1661, Le Brun was there to assist him in his endeavour to reorganise it with the goal that the academicians would work towards bringing about a theoretical foundation for a national French art .

The first of these, "Alexander and the Family of Darius," so delighted Louis XIV that he at once ennobled Le Brun (December, 1662), who was also created Premier Peintre du Roi (First Painter of the King) with a pension of 12,000 livres, the same amount as he had yearly received in the service of the magnificent Fouquet.

[citation needed] In 1669, Louis XIV elected to completely renovate Versailles, which was then a tiny palace, and transform it into an opulent dwelling where he would meet with his subjects and foreign diplomats.

[12] Le Brun was also a fine portraitist and an excellent draughtsman, but he was not fond of portrait or landscape painting, which he felt to be a mere exercise in developing technical prowess.

The fundamental basis on which the director of the academy-based his art was unquestionably to make his paintings speak, through a series of symbols, costumes and gestures that allowed him to select for his composition the narrative elements that gave his works a particular depth.

[citation needed] The Baroque ceiling in the Chambre des Muses at the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte outside Paris, was "decorated by Charles Le Brun's workshop".

[21] On 23 January 2013, artistic advisors for the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Wanda Tymowska and Joseph Friedman, announced the discovery of The Sacrifice of Polyxena, an early work of Le Brun.

[22][23] Posthumously, Le Brun's reputation suffered in the years surrounding the French Revolution and its aftermath, due to his close connection with Louis XIV.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the academic values he personified were out of fashion, and it was only in 1963, when a major Le Brun exhibition was organized at Versailles, that his work was reevaluated.