Charles-Antoine Coypel

A painter, playwright and art critic, Charles Antoine Coypel — also known as Charles Coypel — belonged to a family of Parisian painters: he was the son of Antoine Coypel and the grandson of Noël Coypel. Born in Paris on 11 July 1694, he died there on 14 June 1752. In 1715, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture received him as an agréé and then as an academician on the same day, for his morceau de réception Jason et Médée; he became its director in 1747. On his father’s death in 1722, he took over his duties as First Painter to the Duke of Orléans. According to the French biographical entry, he also held the office of Garde des tableaux et dessins de la Couronne from 1722 to 1752.

His work as a painter included designing cartoons for the Gobelins manufactory, notably on the subject of Don Quichotte. Over the years, he produced twenty-eight small paintings for this tapestry series. The documented works also attest to his interest in portraiture. Adrienne Lecouvreur en Cornélie, dated 1726, is held at the Comédie-Française; two self-portraits, from 1734 and 1739, are listed at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans. His Portrait de Philippe Coypel et de son épouse, dated 1742, was shown at the Salon that same year and is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Alongside painting, Coypel wrote around forty plays between 1717 and 1747. Only Les Folies de Cardenio, dated 1720, was published; the play was performed at the Tuileries in 1721. In the three-act allegorical comedy La Poésie et la Peinture, he compares the qualities of these two arts. His theatrical activity also extended to his portraits of actresses, including Charlotte Desmares and Adrienne Lecouvreur.

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Genève Enchères · Lot 3755

D’après Charles Antoine Coypel — La diseuse de bonne aventure

Oil on canvas

Original catalogue wording

D’après Charles Antoine Coypel — La diseuse de bonne aventure
huile sur toile
D'après

Catalogue period : 2026-09-22

After

Published result : 800 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 1000–1500

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