Henri Testelin
(b Paris, 1616; d The Hague, 17 April 1695). Painter, printmaker and
writer, brother of (1) Louis Testelin.
As a member of the circle of Charles Le Brun, he endorsed his connection
with the Académie Royale by submitting an allegorical portrait of Louis
XIV in Childhood as Patron of the Arts (Versailles, Château) as his
morceau de réception. He was secretary of the Académie from 1650 and a
professor from 1656.
He produced several tapestry cartoons based on designs by Le Brun for the
Gobelins, including the Wedding of Louis XIV and Maria-Theresa on 9 June
1660 (before 1665) and the Founding of the Académie des Sciences and the
Observatory in 1666 (both Versailles, Château). He was active also as a
court portrait painter, exhibiting portraits of Louis XIV as Patron of the
Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (exh. Salon 1673; Versailles,
Château) and of Maria-Theresa, Queen of France (exh. Salon 1673;
untraced). Also at the Salon of 1673 he showed a history painting, Time
Clipping Cupid’s Wings (untraced).
In 1680 he published his Sentiments des plus habiles peintres,
which reflects the body of academic theory established by Le Brun and the
Académie Royale.
As a Protestant, Testelin was excluded from the Académie
in 1681, and he left France to settle in the Netherlands.
His portraits show the influence of Jean Nocret and of Le Brun, although
the drawing is harsher, the attitudes stiffer and the colour less subtle.
(Source: Grove dictionary of art)