Ceres and Harvesting Cupids

1627–1649

Post: Premier peintre du Roi

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.

1638

Death of his wife Virginia

Virginia da Vezzo died in France — a Roman, “a painter known for her beauty”, Vouet's pupil and the model for his Madonnas, and the mother of his five children.

1640

The king sets Poussin against Vouet

Louis XIII summoned Nicolas Poussin, famous in Italy, to Paris with the words “Now Vouet is caught!” and deliberately set the two painters against each other. Vouet, a friend of Poussin, probably chose not to stop his supporters' pamphlets; in the end Poussin returned to Italy and Vouet kept his primacy at court.

1640

Marries Radegonde Béranger

Two years after Virginia's death Vouet married a French widow, Radegonde Béranger, with whom he had three more children.