Marie-Philippe Coupin de La Couperie

Marie-Philippe Coupin de la Couperie, born Marie-Philippe Coupin (11 June 1773 – 19 December 1851), was a French painter, porcelain painter, lithographer and drawing teacher.

A pupil of Anne-Louis Girodet, he is mainly associated with the Troubadour style, drawing on historical and literary subjects inspired by the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He also worked for the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres and later taught drawing at the Prytanée National Militaire and at the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr.

Biography

Family and training

Marie-Philippe Coupin was born in Sèvres on 11 June 1773. He was the third child of Claude Coupin, a merchant from Chichery, and the elder brother of the art critic Pierre-Alexandre Coupin. The two brothers served together in the army from 1793.

In 1800, Coupin entered the studio of Anne-Louis Girodet, becoming one of his pupils. He remained close to Girodet's artistic circle, as well as to the porcelain painter Marie-Victoire Jaquotot.

He later became professor of drawing at the Prytanée National Militaire, and then at the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr.

Other works include Mademoiselle d'Arjuzon imploring Divine Goodness, formerly known as Gabrielle d'Arjuzon praying for the restoration of her mother's health, held by the Louvre, and Valentine of Milan mourning her husband Louis d'Orléans, held by the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Blois.

In 1824, he exhibited Raphael Adjusts Fornarina's Hair before Painting Her Portrait at the Salon. The painting, acquired by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm in 2019, has been described by the museum as an important example of Troubadour painting.

Selected works