Unlike other Caravaggio followers living in Rome, i.e. Valentin de Boulogne who received important commissions, Simon Vouet (prince of the Saint Luke Academy), Nicolas Régnier who also stayed in Venice, Nicolas Tournier left no traces apart from a simple mention of his residence. However, the corpus associated to his Roman stay is abundant and ambitious. He developed a personal and poetic style imbued with a silent atmosphere with quiet figures. He did, however, struggle with complex compositions and dynamic action. His favourite theme was the Denial of Saint Peter that he painted on successive occasions. Some of his Roman paintings count among his most beautiful works: worthy of mention are Banquet scene (Saint Louis, Art Museum), the Christ and the Children or Sinite parvulos (Rome, Galleria Corsini) and the Flute-player (Brescia, Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo), an exquisite example of the mezze figure (half-figures) that Tournier loved.
From 1619, the artist became an independent painter breaking away from Manfredi but becoming closer to Valentin de Boulogne. It was improbable that Tournier was ever a pupil of Valentin de Boulogne (they were the same age) but they spent time together - hardly surprising for two French artists living in the same Roman quarter - and Valentin certainly seems to have influenced Tournier. Although they possessed very different styles - the edgy tension inherent in the figures of the former artist (cf. Judith at the Musée des Augustins) contrasting sharply with Tournier's lunar melancholy - it has become clear that Tournier needed a composition artist to emulate after Manfredi, and this was undoubtedly the role of Valentin.
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