Louis Testelin

Louis Testelin (1615 – 1655) was a French painter.

Life He was the son of Gilles Testelin, king's painter to Louis XIII - this gave Gilles an ex officio home and studio in the Louvre. Louis' younger brother was the painter Henri Testelin, secretary to the Académie royale de peinture.

In 1648, Louis Testelin became one of the founder members of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. In 1649, he was chosen as its secretary and one of its professors in 1650, a role he held until his death in 1655. He also produced satirical caricatures and ink wash paintings. He was buried in Paris's Saints-Pères Cemetery, a cemetery solely for Protestants.

Works Saint Louis Nursing Plague Victims, 1654/1655, Musée de Grenoble. The Return of Gonesse, ink and wash, musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers.

Bibliography (in French) David Simonneau, « Louis Testelin, dessinateur », Rencontres de l'école du Louvre. Dessins français aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, 2003, 169–183. Georges Guillet de Saint-George, notice sur Louis Testelin, in: Mémoires inédits sur la vie et les ouvrages des membres de l'Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, J.B. Dumoulin, Paris, 1854, Volume 1, 216–228. Jean-Pierre Mouilleseaux, « Testelin Louis (1615-1655) - & Henri (1616-1695) », Encyclopædia Universalis « Louis Testelin (1615-1655) », notice du Musée virtuel du protestantisme