Nicolas Tournier (baptised 12 July 1590d. before February 1639)Grove Art Online: "Nicolas Tournier". was a French

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

painter. Born in

Montbéliard Montbéliard (; traditional ) is a town in the Doubs Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eastern France, about from the border with Switzerland. It is one of the two Subprefectures in F ...

, he followed the profession of his father, André Tournier, "a Protestant painter from Besançon". Little is known of his life before his arrival in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where he worked between 1619 and 1626, and where he was influenced by the work of

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

. According to one early source, he was a pupil of

Valentin de Boulogne Valentin de Boulogne (before 3 January 1591 – 19 August 1632), sometimes referred to as Le Valentin, was a French painter in the tenebrist style. Origins Valentin was born in Coulommiers, France, where he was baptised in the parish of Sai ...

. Tournier's Roman paintings are stylistically close to the works of

Bartolomeo Manfredi Bartolomeo Manfredi (baptised 25 August 1582 – 12 December 1622) was an Italian painter, a leading member of the Caravaggisti (followers of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) of the early 17th century. Life Manfredi was born in Ostiano, nea ...

. He painted both secular and religious subjects; an example of the latter is ''The Crucifixion with St. Vincent de Paul'' (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

The Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

). After 1626 Tournier was active in southern France. He died in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

. His work ''The Carrying of the Cross'', painted around 1632, originally hung in the Toulouse chapel of the Company of the Black Penitents. During the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

it was confiscated by the state and moved to a museum, from where it was stolen in 1818. After being lost for nearly two centuries, it reappeared in 2009 during an art collector's estate sale in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

; when the Weiss Gallery of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

purchased it in a

auction in 2011, the French government classified it as stolen property and banned it from leaving the country. Augustins_-_Le_portement_de_la_croix_-_Nicolas_Tournier

Augustins_-_Le_portement_de_la_croix_-_Nicolas_Tournier

References

External links

Tracy Chevalier: The Virgin Blue

1590 births 1630s deaths Artists from Montbéliard French Baroque painters Caravaggisti {{France-painter-stub