Coypel family

   This was a family of four French painters, all born in Paris. Noël Coypel (1628-1707) decorated the louvre and became director of the French Academy in Rome (1622). He also decorated the Tuileries and the chapel of Les Invalides, and designated tapestries. He was elected to the Académie Française in 1659. Antoine Coypel (1661-1722), the son of Noël Coypel, with whom he studied in Rome, was greatly influenced by the baroque style and was instructed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Antoine Coypel decorated the ceilings of the Palais Royal and the chapel at Versailles, and already a favorite of the regent, in 1716 became principal painter to the king. He, too, designed tapestries for the gobelins factory. Influenced also by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck, his mythological paintings herald the rococo style (Persée et Andromède) and his works are known for their ease of technique and sense of verve (Démocrite, 1692; Jeune Noir tenant une corbeille de fruits et jeune fille caressant un chien, c. 1682). Noël-Nicolas Coypel (16901734), also a son of Noël Coypel, painted minor subjects in the rococo style. Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752), the son of Antoine Coypel, was a painter to the king, director of the Academy of Fine Arts, and produced the illustrations for a number of works of jean-baptiste molière and for Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote.