Before Realism: Valentin de Boulogne & the Brothers Le Nain
Art in America
Richard Neer writes: "Valentin [de Boulogne] ... was ... a leading exponent of a style of painting that Caravaggio had pioneered a generation earlier: shadowy, dramatically lit scenes drawn directly from life that pushed the boundaries of good taste through a commitment to verisimilitude and déclassé subject matter. With his death, that Caravaggesque tradition lost