Ferdinand Elle was a Flemish portrait painter born in Mechelen around 1570, although some sources give 1576 as his year of birth. He worked mainly in France, where he died in Paris in 1637. He is best remembered for being the teacher of Nicolas Poussin, one of the great French painters of the seventeenth century, and of his own son, Louis Ferdinand Elle the Elder, who also became a painter.
From 1601 he served as court painter to Louis XIII, which gave him a stable position at the French court. As a portraitist, his known works include Portrait of a Man, dated 1618. Unfortunately, very few of his paintings have survived, so his style can only be partly reconstructed today.
His legacy lies largely in the students he trained. Through Poussin and his son, he occupies an important place as a link between Flemish painting and the French school.
Works (1)
Portrait of a man dated 1618, painted in oil on canvas by Ferdinand Elle. The available information does not identify the sitter or explain the circumstances behind the commission, so any detailed reading of the composition or symbolism would lack solid support. What the work offers is a direct example of portraiture as practised in its period.
Where to see the work
- Musée d'art et d'histoire de Narbonne Narbonne · 1