Le repas chez Simon le Pharisien ("The Supper at the House of Simon the Pharisee") by Jean Jouvenet

Born into a great family of artists, of which he was the most brilliant representative, Jean Jouvenet began painting in Rouen, then entered the Royal Academy School in 1661, and continued his training in Charles Le Brun's circle. Louis XIV's first painter noticed the talent of the 17-year-old Rouen artist, and integrated him into his workshop of decorators for the Royal Buildings. Jouvenet worked on the Versailles and Tuileries sites in the 1670s, before turning to large-scale religious painting. Many Parisian churches and townhouses owe their decoration to him.

Jean Jouvenet was admitted to the Royal Academy in 1675, and from 1685 onwards, he devoted himself primarily to religious painting, becoming France's leading exponent of this genre after painting mythological and decorative scenes for Versailles and Parisian private mansions. He produced large-scale works for Parisian churches, but also for religious congregations and provincial churches.

In 1706, he exhibited four monumental paintings: Les marchands chassés du temple, La résurrection de Lazare, La pêche miraculeuse and Le repas chez Simon in the church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. The works pleased Louis XIV, who asked that they also be produced as tapestries. Several copies were made from a tapestry cartoon.

The painting conserved at the château de Maisons is a reduced-format copy of the monumental original (393 x 663 cm) in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. Jouvenet produced other monumental copies of Le Repas chez Simon le Pharisien: one, dated 1699, is in the parish church of Notre-Dame de Vervins. The other, belonging to the Musée du Louvre and dated 1711, is currently on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Arras.

The influence of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) is still evident in the classical architecture that frames the meal scene, but the composition shows the Baroque influence of Peter Paul Rubens, of whom he was one of the greatest admirers. A great colorist, Jean Jouvenet is clearly the heir of Venetian painters such as Veronese in his use of light tones, particularly in pink shades.

Antoine Schnapper et Christine Gouzi, Jean Jouvenet 1644-1717 et la peinture d'histoire à Paris, Paris, Arthena, 2010.