Biography
Matthieu Elias was a French-Flemish painter who specialised in religious scenes filled with expressive figures, sweeping draperies and theatrical contrasts of earthly darkness and divine light.
Born in 1658 at Peene, near Cassel, in the Flemish-speaking borderlands of northern France, Elias' beginnings were modest. The principal early account of his life is that of the 18th-century biographer Jean-Baptiste Descamps, who related the rather wonderful story that the young Elias amused himself by drawing figures while tending his impoverished family's cow. His talent was supposedly noticed by the landscape painter Philippe de Corbehem, who took him on as a pupil. Modern scholarship treats the finer details of this story cautiously, but Corbehem's role in Elias's early training appears well established.
Elias subsequently left the north for Paris, where he was recorded by 1684. It was an important transition. The capital exposed him to a more sophisticated artistic culture and provided opportunities far beyond those available to a provincial painter. He became associated with the Académie de Saint-Luc, the important Parisian painters' guild and academy that existed alongside the more prestigious Académie Royale.
His progress was considerable. In 1709, Elias became head of the Académie de Saint-Luc. By then he had also received a particularly distinguished commission. In 1702, the Parisian goldsmiths commissioned him to paint The Sons of Sceva Beaten by a Demon for Notre-Dame Cathedral. The commission placed Elias within a long-established tradition whereby the city's goldsmiths presented substantial religious paintings to the cathedral.
Yet Paris did not ultimately define his career. Elias returned to the region in which he had grown up and spent much of his later life working for churches in and around Dunkirk. Religious painting became the centre of his practice. Altarpieces and large devotional compositions allowed him to combine narrative, gesture, colour and spectacle - qualities particularly evident in his surviving work.
His paintings frequently divide the world into two realms. Below, substantial human figures respond through astonishment, fear, devotion or supplication. Above, clouds open, angels gather, and divine figures emerge into light. He was particularly adept at connecting these zones through gesture: raised arms, pointing hands and turned faces lead the viewer upwards through the composition.
The result can feel distinctly Flemish despite Elias's long connection with Paris. Rather than abandoning the visual traditions of the north, he carried them into the 18th century. Indeed, modern scholarship has characterised his mature manner as already somewhat old-fashioned for its date, comparing aspects of his figure style with the earlier religious painting of Philippe de Champaigne. This is useful when considering Elias today. He was not an artist chasing every new Parisian fashion. His career demonstrates the persistence of an older, monumental tradition of devotional painting in northern France and Flanders.
There was also more to his practice than oil painting. Elias supplied designs for stained glass and was an accomplished draughtsman. Particularly important is his remarkable series illustrating the life of the Cistercian reformer Jean de La Barrière, produced in 1706-07. Ten sheets from the series are now held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Executed in combinations of chalk, ink, wash and white heightening, they demonstrate the careful compositional thinking underlying the apparent drama of his paintings.
The artist's religious convictions may themselves have mattered. Descamps repeatedly emphasised Elias's piety, and modern scholarship has suggested that his reputation for devotion may have helped him secure ecclesiastical work.
Following his return north, Elias continued receiving substantial commissions. A documented work of 1709 for the church of Saint-Éloi at Dunkirk, for example, was sufficiently important to be protected during the bombardments of the First World War. Intriguingly, it was formerly attributed to Peter van Lint or Gaspar de Crayer - an indication of the Flemish tradition within which Elias's work could later be understood.
He continued painting into old age and died at Dunkirk in 1741. Elias is little known outside northern France today, but his surviving works reveal an artist of considerable ambition. His speciality was not quiet contemplation. He painted revelation - the instant when an ordinary human world is interrupted by something miraculous. And when heaven opened, Elias made sure everybody noticed.
Known For
Large-scale religious paintings and altarpieces, particularly compositions in which dramatically gesturing figures are arranged beneath celestial apparitions. His works typically employ rich colour, substantial rounded figures, long folds of drapery, clouds, cherubs and strong contrasts between illuminated heavenly passages and darker earthly figures. He was also an accomplished draughtsman and produced designs associated with stained glass. His 1706-07 drawings illustrating the life of Jean de La Barrière are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Student Of
Philippe de Corbehem - landscape painter in Dunkirk and Elias's early master.
Subsequently continued his artistic development in Paris and became associated with the Académie de Saint-Luc.
Lived In
- Peene/Cassel region
- Dunkirk - trained there during his youth and returned to northern France during his mature career.
- Paris - documented there from at least 1684; later became head of the Académie de Saint-Luc.
- Dunkirk - spent his later career there and died in 1741.
Public Collections
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, holds ten drawings from Elias's Scenes from the Life of the Reverend Jean de La Barrière, dated 1706-07.
Works also remain in churches and historic ecclesiastical collections across northern France, particularly around Dunkirk, with French heritage records documenting surviving paintings by or attributed to Elias.
Timeline
1658
Born at Peene, near Cassel, in northern France.
Later 17th century
Trained in Dunkirk under the landscape painter Philippe de Corbehem. Descamps later preserved the story that Elias's ability was discovered while he was drawing as a boy tending the family cow.
By 1684
Recorded in Paris, where he continued his artistic development.
1702
Commissioned by the Parisian goldsmiths to paint The Sons of Sceva Beaten by a Demon for Notre-Dame Cathedral.
1706-1707
Produced his extensive series illustrating the life of the Reverend Jean de La Barrière. Ten drawings from the series are now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1709
Became head of the Académie de Saint-Luc in Paris.
Completed a documented religious commission at Bergues for the church of Saint-Éloi in Dunkirk.
After 1709
Returned to northern France, where religious commissions for churches in and around Dunkirk formed an important part of his later career.
1736
Painted Saint Nicolas, one of the late works identified in the earlier research material.
1741
Died in Dunkirk.