Nicolas Tournier, the French Caravaggesque,

Nicolas Tournier, the French Caravaggesque, painter, worked during a time of great artistic prosperity in France. Henry IV's reign for example marked the "rebuilding of Paris as a tasteful, ordered city" (Encyclopaedia Britannica). New additions such as the Pont Neuf, the Place Dauphine, Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye gave Paris its new reputation as the center of civilization and high society. Henry IV then set a trend for future kings and ministers to patronize the arts. The prosperity not only in the French arts, but also in French politics, culminated in the stability of Louis XIV's reign. This is also a paradigm reflected by the arts of the time, and it is against this background that Tournier created his work.

According to the Musee des Augustins, Tournier came from a family of Besancon artists in Montbeliard. This was a Lutheran enclave, where Tournier received his first instruction from his father, Andre. The senior Tournier was a painter in the Northern Mannerist style. From here, Tournier left to complete his training, as is commonly believed, in Rome and Languedoc. The first years, from 1610 to 1618, were spent in Languedoc, while Tournier resided in Rome from 1619 to 1626. This is a fairly obscure time in Tournier's career, as little is left of this period.

Tournier's work during his time in Rome is said to revolve mostly around copying assignments of compositions by Bartolomeo Manfredi (Musee des Augustins). Manfredi is an important influence on Tournier's work, as he, like Tournier later, was a main artist in the Caravaggesque tradition.

A and a training period in the studio of this master, one of the main representatives of Caravaggism.

Although the copies, along with the originals, were attributed to Manfredi, Tournier's style and personality did emerge in the copies, including the one of the Drinkers' Reunion in Le Mans.

Tournier's greatest influence, thanks to his apprenticeship in Rome, was Caravaggio, from whom Tournier adopted a sense of grandeur, and his use of theatrical light that could both reveal and obscure according to the artist's choice. These elements were however not unbridled. Tournier combines the passion he learns from Caravaggio with his own French restraint and distinction. In this, his paintings exhibit a poetic atmosphere, as if the universe depicted is suspended in time. A stillness communicates itself to the viewer of these works. It is also this quality that permeates all of Tournier's work, from his early apprenticed works to the later, more experienced paintings.

Tournier became independent from Manfredi during 1619, and became a prolific artist. It was during this time, until 1926, that he created paintings of banquet and musical scenes. These include his depiction of "A Musical Party." What is interesting about this painting and others like it, is the fact that Tournier also imposed upon these supposedly cheerful scenes his own fairly melancholy reserve. With dark shadows, Tournier imposes a sense of discrete emotion rather than joviality upon his banquets, musical and gaming scenes. It is perhaps little wonder that the artist later preferred religious scenes, for which his paradigm of quiet reserve appears to be more appropriate. Nevertheless, "A Musical Party" and other banquet scenes, in its contrasting gloom, gain a sense of depth that other painters do not achieve with similar depictions.

After the end of his apprenticeship in 1619, Tournier became part of a community of French artists in Rome, who perpetuated the Caravaggesque movement. Most influential of Tournier's work during this time was Valentin de Boulogne (Musee des Augustins). Both being French and in Rome, the artists became good friends. While Tournier was not a pupil of Boulogne's, the latter nonetheless influenced him significantly. It is perhaps also as a result of Boulogne's influence that Tournier painted generally upbeat, secular scenes such as "A Musical Party." Not even this artist's jovial influence could destroy the inherent melancholy of Tournier's work. Whereas Boulogne's figures were depicted with an edgy tension, Tournier's were consistently quiet, as mentioned above, almost suspended in time. The two style were therefore vastly different, although mutually influential.

Tournier's work during his Roman residence was abundant and ambitious. His quiet figures were developed in Tournier's non-conforming personal and poetic style, while he struggled with dynamic action scenes. Among his favorite religious scenes from his later work was the Denial of Saint Peter. Many however feel that the festive scenes he painted during his Roman period are among his most beautiful. The reason for this, as mentioned above, is the apparently absurd contrast between the quiet, solemn atmosphere, the still figures, and the lighthearted themes of his depictions. These speak to the duality inherent in every human being, and therefore touches a chord that few works of visual art tend to do. In addition to "A Musical Party," Tournier's "Banquet Scene" and "The Flute-Player" depict such dualistic themes.