Simon Vouet (1590-1649) is a prodigy painter, so famous at fifteen
years old that Richelieu appoints it first painter of the king Louis
XIII. One of its major works has just entered to the Louvre with
the prestigious title of National Treasure : The Virgin with the
Branch of Oak also known under the title of Hesselin Madonna. It was
ordered in 1640 in Vouet by his friend Louis Hesselin, famous Parisian
collector of the Room to the Sums of money of the House of the King,
living a private mansion quai de Béthune, on the Island
Saint-Louis. This Virgin with the child is indexed there in her cabinet
of curiosity in 1662. She disappears then until 1904. Like its
contemporaries, Poussin or Mignard, Vouet declined several times the
topic of the Virgin with the child, extremely delighted at the
XVIIIème century. But this table is the only one who represents
the two faces of the characters looking at the witness.
Henceforth, this National Treasure bought 800.000 Euros by the French
state is forbidden of export and its exit of territory is strictly
regulated. Thanks to public funds and private funds six national
treasures of a value of approximately 9 million euros were thus found
in the Louvre since 2002.