o portrayed peasant life with great sympathy and respect for the common man. The Dairywoman's Family was painted by Louis (1593-1648), the most talented of the brothers. The figures of the peasants in it are full of dignity, and the compact group stands out boldly against the greyist-silvery expanse of the masterfully painted landscape. Also in this room is A Visit to Grandmother , attributed to Mathieu Le Nain.
Room 279 . The Hermitage has a very large and valuable collection of the works of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), the founder of Neoclassicism in seventeenth century French painting. In the center of Poussin's vision stands Man, endowed with reason, will and spiritual beauty. Such are the heroes of his numeous paintings on biblical, mythological and literary themes the sefless Erminia in Tranced and Erminia , the fearless Esther of Esther before Ahasuerus , and Moses, the wise tribal chief in Moses Striking the Rock . Poussin's rationalism and philosophical outlook are revealed in his delightful Landscape with Polyphemus (1649). Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops, is sitting on the top of a rock playing a pipe, with nymphs, satyrs and a ploughman tilling the land, all drinking in this song of nature. In his search for an ideal representation of nature Possin does not paint from life, but builds up his from separate details observed in nature.
Room 280 . Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) was a leading exponent of the classical landscape. Composed according to the rules of Classicism, Claude's canvases are saturated with light, which lends them a particular emotional quality. The famous series The Four Time of the Day ( Morning, Noon, Evening and Night ) reflects the artist's interest in light, which was something new for French art. br/>
Room 281 . late 17 th century art. The official art of France during the golden age of the absolute monarchy served the task of glorifying Louis XIV. Artistic life was regulated by the Academy, at the head of which was the premier peintre to the king, Charles Lebrun (1619-1690), and after him Pierre Mignard (1612-1695). Mignard's work is represented by the monumental Magnanimily of Alexander the Great . After his victory over the Persian emperor Darius, Alexander enters his tent where he encounters the family of the vanquished emperor begging for mercy. With a gesture of the hand the victor grants the captives their lives. The choice of subject was not fortuitous; in the figure of Alexander is glorified le roi soleil , Louis XIV. If Mignard extolled the king in the figure of the great general, the sculptor Francois Girardon (1628-1715) portrayed him as Roman emperor. Girardon's small bronze model for the unpreserved equestrian statue presents the king in the attire of an ancient Roman soldier and in a wig, such as worn in the seventeenth century. br/>
In room 282 there is a unique collection of seventeenth and eighteenth century Western European silver, for the most part French.
Rooms 290-297 contain items of French applied art, including furniture, Gobilin tapestries, faience, bronze, and porcelain. This collection is known throughout the world on account of its exceptional wealth.
Room 283. this exhibition introduces the visitor to the French portrait painting of the second half of the seventeenth century. The eminent portrait painter Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) is represented by The Portrait of a Scholar .
The two ebony cupboards, decorated with bronze and tortoise-shell and used for keeping medals in, were made in the workshop of Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), a well-known furniture-maker. An original Boulle cupboard can be seen in room 293.
Room 284-289 . 18 th century art. This room contains several pieces by one of France's most eminent artists, Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) who, in his search for a realist approach, broke with hidebound academic convention. In his small paintings The Hardships of War and The Recreations of War Watteau portrayed the everyday life of a soldier rather than ostentatious battle scenes as his predecessors had done. The Savoyard with a Marmot (1716), a picture of a simple-hearted young traveling musician, also confirms Watteau's interest in the simple phenomena of life. The blue expanse of the clear, fresh sky, the buildings of the small town, and the silhouettes of the bare trees make up a landscape in which the glowing colours of autumn are dominant. Watteau became famous as a painter of so-called fetes galantes. An example of this type of painting is the Embarrassing Proposal , painted about 1716. Some member s of fashionable society are amusi...
