Gregor Brandmüller

Gregor Brandmüller (or Georg) was a late 17th-century Swiss painter, a pupil of Charles Le Brun.

His father owned a collection of drawings and prints, and Brandmüller showed an early interest in art by copying some of them.

When he was seventeen he was sent to Paris, where he studied under Charles Le Brun, who thought highly enough of his abilities to employ him to paint from his designs, in the works he was then engaged in at Versailles.

He was equal to the composition of grand historical subjects, which he treated with nobleness, and painted with great spirit and fire.

[1] His painting Les Trésors de l'Amérique (1682; Musée du Nouveau Monde, La Rochelle) is an allegorical portrait of four children, one of whom is held in the arms of a black nurse wearing a slave-collar; the other three are dressed to represent Asia, Europe and America, with the various "treasures" lying at their feet.