La Nativité

1623

Friendship with Artemisia Gentileschi

In Rome Vouet befriended the painter Artemisia Gentileschi and painted her portrait in 1623. He was also on friendly terms with Nicolas Poussin and the Lorrainer Claude Mellan, both working in Rome.

1624

Head of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome

His immense success in Rome brought Vouet election as principe (president) of the Accademia di San Luca.

april 1626

Married: Virginia Vezzi

1627

Returns to Paris at the summons of Louis XIII

At the royal summons Vouet returned to France; Louis XIII commissioned from him portraits, tapestry cartoons and paintings for the Louvre, the Palais du Luxembourg and the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. As one art historian writes, French art was then “painfully provincial”, and Vouet, introducing the latest Italian fashions, brought Paris up to date.

1630

Lodgings and a studio in the Louvre

Vouet was given lodgings and a studio in the Louvre; his Paris workshop trained a whole school of French painters of the next generation — among its pupils was André Le Nôtre, creator of the gardens of Versailles, while Michel Dorigny and François Tortebat became the master's sons-in-law.

1632

Working for Cardinal Richelieu

Vouet worked for Cardinal Richelieu at the Palais-Royal and the Château de Malmaison.