Pierre d'Ulin

Pierre Dulin, or Pierre d’Ulin (17 September 1669 - 28 January 1748), was a French painter.

Pierre Dulin was born in Paris on 17 September 1669. After learning some principles of grammar and Latin, Dulin studied geometry and practical perspective under Sébastien Leclerc. He was intended to become an architect like his father, and was required to study that subject under Philippe de La Hire. In a relatively short time he could draw buildings with ease and taste. So that he could also draw figures and ornaments, still with the goal of becoming an architect, his father put him under Friquet de Vauroze of the Academy of Architecture. This is where painting became his sole interest. He resisted the wishes of his family and yielded to this passion.

He was therefore placed in a course at the Royal Academy of Painting under Bon Boullogne, whose classicist style would strongly influence him. Dulin, whose start in art education had been delayed, won few prizes up to 1694, when he was aged 25. The following year, his teacher advised him to stand for the Academy's grand prize. He was admitted to the competition but did not win.

Undiscouraged, he tried again and won the next year with great distinction. His painting, whose subject was "Pharaoh giving his ring to Joseph after the explanation of dreams", was found so much above what had been seen so far from him that there was suspicion of cheating. Before granting the prize to Dulin, the Academy asked that he prove his capacity to the Director, executing in his presence a work on a subject given by the Director. He passed this test successfully.

The next year he entered a picture of "Joseph's brothers held as spies in the court of Pharaoh", which was considered an even more brilliant work. The previous year he had tied for the first prize with Michel Cornical, but this time he won more votes than his rival. The Academy excluded him from subsequent competitions as being too formidable an artist, and put him on the list of pupils to go to the Academy of Rome. He was not ready for this trip until the following year, about the time when René-Antoine Houasse was promoted to the direction of the school of Rome, and he proposed to accompany Houasse.

However, work that he had undertaken for the Duke of Richelieu obliged him to defer the trip to Rome. This was a great allegorical subject that would decorate a sundial in the garden of the hotel that Richelieu occupied in the Place Royale. The taste that Dulin had shown in his sketch was so great that Richelieu could not bring himself to let him go and he even obtained an order from Mansart for him to stay. This was less to force him to stay than to ensure that he retained his scholarship to the school of Rome. The Duke loved the arts and artists, and felt this sentiment to a particular degree with Dulin, since he kept Dulin in his house, admitted him to his table and provided servants to look after him. When the sundial was complete, Dulin began composition of several works: Time, the Three Fates, Daybreak Personified and the Genie of the Hours. He also made two large portraits of the Duke, one dressed as a Roman on horseback, the other of him in armor.

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