Charles Le Brun

This bust of the great artist Charles Le Brun was exhibited before the French Academy in 1676, serving as the model for a marble version (now in the Louvre, Paris) that Coysevox offered to the Academy as his reception piece in 1679. Le Brun was not only First Painter to Louis XIV but also Chancellor of the Academy and, as head of the Gobelins manufactory, the leader of a team producing luxury furnishings (tapestries, furniture and silver) unsurpassed in Europe. Coysevox rose to become one of the greatest sculptors of his time and from 1678 was much employed at Versailles. He shows Le Brun in his day shirt, with only a miniature of Louis XIV, tucked within his cloak, hinting at his position and status