Nicolas Colombel, a French painter, was born at Sotteville

Sotteville-lès-Rouen

- Transportation :The métro connects the commune with Rouen and Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray.The commune used to be a railway town in the days of the old Rouen tramway.- Population :- Places of interest :* The three churches of Notre-Dame, St...

, near Rouen

Rouen

Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...

, about 1644. He went to Rome when quite young, and remained
there until 1692, forming his style by a study of the works of Raphael

Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...

 and of Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century...

. His pictures met with considerable success, though in the opinion of critics of more modern days he never attained any real approximation to the works of those masters. He was admitted into the Academy of St. Luke at Rome

Accademia di San Luca

The Accademia di San Luca, was founded in 1577 as an association of artists in Rome, under the directorship of Federico Zuccari, with the purpose of elevating the work of "artists", which included painters, sculptors and architects, above that of mere craftsmen. Other founders included Girolamo...

 in 1686, and in 1694 into that of Paris

Guild of Saint Luke

The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was identified by John of Damascus as having painted the...

. The Louvre

Louvre

The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

 possesses the 'Mars and Rhea Sylvia,' which he painted for his reception, and an able work representing the 'Miracle of St. Hyacinthe.' He was much employed by Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 both at Versailles

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

 and at Meudon

Château de Meudon

The former Château de Meudon, on a hill in Meudon, about 4 kilometres south-west of Paris, occupied the terraced steeply sloping site. It was acquired by Louis XIV, who greatly expanded its as a residence for Louis, le Grand Dauphin...

. Many of his works have been engraved by Dufloc

Claude Duflos

Claude Duflos, a French engraver, was born in Paris in 1665, and died in the same city in 1727. It is not known by whom he was instructed, but his style resembles that of François Poilly. We have by this artist a great number of plates, executed principally with the graver, and very neatly finished...

, and by Michel Dossier. He died in Paris in 1717.