À quel frère, l'honneur? - La Tabagie, by the Le Nain brothers, 1643

 

La Tabagie, or Le Corps de garde and, in English, Soldiers Smoking in an Interior, or the Guardhouse. There has been much scholarly discussion as to the specific authorship of this painting. First attributed to Louis, the best known of the three brothers, it is now generally believed to have only been begun by him, and subsequently finished by Mathieu after his brother's death.

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Antoine Le Nain (circa1600 - 1648), Louis Le Nain (circa 1603 - 1648), and Mathieu Le Nain (1607–1677), French artists, three brothers, who produced genre works, portraits, and portrait miniatures. Because of the similarity of their styles of painting and the difficulty of distinguishing works by each brother - they signed their paintings only with their surname, and many may have been collaborations - they are commonly referred to as a single entity, Le Nain. The brothers were born in or near Laon in northern France. By 1630, all three were living in Paris, where they shared the studio founded by Antoine, who had been admitted to the Paris painters' guild, enabling his two brothers to train under him without paying fees. Within a few years they were receiving important commissions. The early paintings of the Le Nain brothers were religious, and varied in style as the brothers passed through brief periods in which they were influenced by French contemporaries such as Philippe de Champaigne, Laurent de La Hyre, and Jacques Blanchard. But a more enduring influence on their paintings was the work of the Italian artist Orazio Gentileschi, who had worked in Paris during the 1620s. The Le Nains' interest in genre and peasant subjects began around 1640. Their choice of subject was unusual for the time: the Parisian art community was busy producing mythological allegories, and royal and aristocratic portraits. The brother's sober execution, use of chiaroscuro, and color palette were more characteristic of the Dutch and Spanish schools. Louis is usually credited with the best-known of their peasant paintings, while the miniatures are usually ascribed to Antoine. The portraits are mostly attributed to Mathieu, who became the official painter - Peintre ordinaire - of Paris in 1633, and much later was made a chevalier. In 1648 the three brothers were received into the Académie de peinture et de sculpture on the year of its founding - which was also the year that both Antoine and Louis died. Mathieu appears to have painted into the 1650s, though no works are signed after 1648. The brother's paintings were largely forgotten until the 1840s when they were "rediscovered" by the art critic Champfleury. First appearing on the walls of the Louvre in 1848, their work proved influential among young artists - like Champfleury's friend, the painter Courbet - and helped influence a move toward realism in French art.