Jacques Fouquier

After training in Antwerp he worked in various places where he often obtained appointments as a painter to the court including that of the French kings.

He came to this conclusion on the basis of an autograph inscription by Fouquier on a drawing dated 1604 kept in the Art Collection of the University of Göttingen (inv.

The 17th century German Baroque art-historian Joachim von Sandrart stated that Fouquier was the scion of a good family from western Flanders.

[7] On 15 July 1626 the king commissioned him to make plans, paintings and views of landscapes for the Grande Galerie of the Louvre palace.

It was provoked by the exacting attitude of Foucquier vis-à-vis Poussin in relation to the decoration of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre palace.

In a letter to Paul Fréart de Chantelou, Poussin made fun of "le baron Foucquier" and is said to have avenged himself after his escape from Paris associated with the dispute in an allegory in which Foucquier was represented by a donkey on which Jacques Lemercier sat enthroned as the queen of stupidity.

This tradition showed a preference for sweeping views with craggy rocks in the distance and a blue-greenish palette.

This work also shows the influence of Dutch painters such as Adriaen van de Venne and Hendrick Avercamp.

He does not follow van Coninxloo in the direction of-a more naturalistic display of leaves, but he maintains the abbreviated, schematic treatment of foliage to concentrate rather on the new compositional ideas: uniform space in the foreground and middle ground rather than the stratification of the foreground, middle ground and distant portions and the romantic rocks of the de Momper school, only occasional perspective into the distance, greater ability to draw the viewer into the image, and above all a harmonization of color with more emphasis on light and the direction of the light: The color scheme, especially in the background, points to later developments in the 17th century such as seen in the works of Gaspard Dughet and Jacques d'Arthois.

There are, however, many authenticated drawings which indicate that at that time Fouquier was much influenced by the classicising trend of the Carracci's and Paul Bril, which was then being introduced into France through the works of Poussin, Claude Lorrain and Gaspard Dughet.

[3] Many of the works of Fouquier were engraved by contemporary artists including Alexander Voet the Younger, Matthieu van Plattenberg, Jan Baptist de Wael, Jean Morin, Gabriel Perelle, Jean-Jacques de Boissieu, Nicolas Cochin and Ignatius van der Stock.

[11] The prints provide a record of Fouquier's large-scale works that were produced after his move to France, most of the originals of which have been destroyed or not located.