Pierre Mignard (French: Pierre Mignard; November 7, 1612, Troyes – May 30, 1695, Paris) was a French artist, the brother of Nicolas Mignard. He had the nickname Roman to distinguish himself from his brother.

From 1624, Pierre studied in the studio of Jean Boucher (French) in Bourges. Returning to Troyes, he worked for the sculptor François Gentilly. Soon he went to Fontainebleau – the city of artists and the capital of art of that time, where he studied the work of Primaticcio, Rosso and Martin Freminet. Under the patronage of Marshal Vitry, Pierre Mignard became a student of Simon Vouet, in whose studio he met his future rival Charles Le Brun and met the painter and art theorist Dufresne.

In 1635, the artist went to Rome, where he earned great fame. There he met Poussin and Anna Avolara, who many years later would become his wife, and with whom he had four children. He was influenced by the Roman and Bolognese schools of painting, by such masters as Agostino Carracci, Francesco Albani, Domenichino, Pietro da Cortona, Andrea Sacchi, Giovanni Sassoferrato. Together with other artists, commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu’s brother A. L. du Plessis, he made copies of the frescoes of Agostino and Annibale Carracci in the Farnese Palace.

Having become famous in Italy, Mignard was summoned to the court of Louis XIV in 1657. Rivaling Le Brun, Mignard became the head of the Academy of St. Luke in Paris, opposing the Royal Academy. In 1687 the king granted him the title of nobility, and in 1690, after the death of Le Brun, he became the chief court artist, director of the royal art museums and manufactories, a member and professor of the Paris Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and then its rector and chancellor.

At this time, at almost 80 years of age, he created projects for paintings in the Cathedral of Les Invalides, which are still kept in the Louvre, painted two ceiling paintings in the small apartments of the king in the Palace of Versailles (fragments are in the museums in Grenoble, Lille, Toulouse, Dinant and in the Château de Fontainebleau) and wrote a series of religious paintings with subtle colors: “Christ and the Samaritan Woman”, 1690, (Louvre); “Saint Cecilia”, 1691, (Louvre); “Faith” and “Hope”, 1692. Pierre Mignard died on May 30, 1695, while working on his “Self-portrait as Saint Luke” (Troyes Museum), and is buried in the Jacobin Convent in Paris. On the house where he died, 23 rue Richelieu, there is a memorial plaque in his honor.

Strong, harmonious coloring is the main merit of his works, which generally testify to his high talent; but in them he paid tribute to his time, which was partial to refinement and external brilliance: the composition of his pictures is theatrical, the grace of his figures borders on affectedness, the expression suffers from a certain artificiality and affectation. These shortcomings are least noticeable in his portraits, for which he can be considered one of the best masters in the entire French school. He painted numerous portraits of courtiers, the king’s favorites, and Louis XIV himself, whom he painted about ten times. Of Mignard’s fresco works, the most important were the paintings in the dome of the Val-de-Grâce, which soon deteriorated due to the poor quality of the paints, and the mythological wall paintings in the great hall of the Palace of Saint-Cloud, which perished with the building in 1870. Among his works that have survived to this day are:

“The Family of the Grand Dauphin”, museum in Versailles;

“Girl with Soap Bubbles” (“Mademoiselle de Blois”, Museum of Versailles;

Portrait of the Ambassador of Malta, 1653, La Valletta, National Museum;

Portrait of a Man (possibly Senator Marco Peruta), 1654, Prague, National Gallery;

Portrait of Tubeuf, 1663, Museum of Versailles;

Portrait of Madame de Maintenon, 1691, Paris, Louvre;

Portrait of Colbert de Villacerf, 1693, Museum of Versailles.