Charles-Antoine Coypel

  • 1694 - 1752
  • Artist
  • French

Charles-Antoine Coypel had precocious success as a painter, as his father and teacher Antoine Coypel was the premier peintre du roi (First Painter to the King). Upon his father's death in 1722, Charles inherited the elder Coypel's painting and design responsibilities at court, became the chief painter of the duc d'Orléans, and received lodgings at the Louvre. He eventually became premier peintrehimself in 1747, as well as director of the Académie Royale.

Besides talents in painting and engraving, Coypel possessed some literary talent: he produced two tragedies, several comedies, prose, and some poetry. He also excelled as a tapestry designer for the Gobelins manufactory; the twenty-eight scenes he created for the Don Quixote series woven continuously between 1714 and 1794, were his most successful. He received several commissions for paintings for the Palais de Versailles, and he worked for the king's mistress, Madame de Pompadour. In 1747 Coypel received an order to design a series of theatrical scenes for tapestries for the queen of Poland.