Philippe de Champaigne was born of a poor family in Brussels, Netherlands in 1602. He was a pupil of Jacques Fouquieres, a landscape painter. He moved to Paris in 1621 where he worked on the decoration of the Palais du Luxembourg. He worked with Nicolas Duchesne in this project. Apart from being a painter who was noted for his penetrating and restrained portraits, he was also a teacher of the French school. His career progressed very fast under the queen mother Marie de Medicis and within a just a few years he succeeded the Duchesne as the court painter.
He portrayed the French high nobility, the entire French court, high members of the church and the state, parliamentarians, royalty, and architects, and other notable people. He refused to show a transitory expression in depicting their faces; instead he captured the psychological essence of the people. Philippe’s works can be seen in churches, private collections and public buildings. His outstanding works are the lifelike and natural psychological portraits he produced of eminent contemporaries such as Jansenist Omer Talon, Jean Baptiste Colbert, Cardinal Mazarin, and Jacques Lemercier. His style was characterized by a sober use of composition, monumental conception of the figures, and brilliant sense of color. His works were influenced by Sir Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens.
In 1643 Philippe, became involved with Jansenism making him to reject many Baroque conventions. During his last period Champaigne painted mainly family members and religious subjects. He died in 1674 in Paris. Philippe de Champaigne framed art pieces are availed in numerous galleries and are in most cases availed ready for installation.