Lubin Baugin, Rediscovered by Art Historians
André Félibien, the main representative of academic doctrine at the end of the 17th Century, is largely responsible for the oblivion suffered by the artist. In 1688, in his Entretiens, in a laconic and slightly offhand text, he accused Baugin of "following certain painting practices that are hardly natural" and added, "that is why Lubin Baugin cannot be counted amongst the number of excellent Painters", in this way conforming with the disdain of his era for a graceful style of painting which stemmed from the Mannerist movement. In the 18th Century, it was the great art-lover and collector Mariette who tainted Baugin's reputation for many a year by connecting him rather too quickly with the great painter from Bologna, Guido Reni, and giving him the nickname of "Little Guido". A long silence ensued. It was not only "accursed" artists - such as Georges de La Tour - who were forgotten, but also painters who were highly esteemed in Paris in their day. It was only in 1934, at the famous exhibition of Peintres de la réalité devoted to 17th Century French still life painting that Georges de La Tour, the Le Nain brothers and Lubin Baugin's still lifes were restored to honour. But there were questions about the possible existence of two Baugins, one a painter of still lifes and the other, of religious works.
An exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Orléans in 1958, Artistes orléanais du XVIIe siècle, enabled a comparison of these two genres for the first time.
But above all, it was Jacques Thuillier's memorable article in L'Oeil in 1963 that finally rehabilitated Lubin Baugin's religious work.
Since then, Jacques Thuillier has continued his tireless labour of rediscovering the artist. Let us therefore allow him to conclude our journey: "The best chance for Baugin to quickly recover the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries ... is that Pascal Quignard introduced the still life painter as a counterpoint to the musician Marin Marais in 1991, in a most delicate recital entitled "Tous les matins du monde", and that Alain Corneau, who directed the subsequent film, brought to life for an instant on the screen this Monsieur Baugin, whose name had never even been heard by the majority of the audience."
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