Biographical Landmarks
- Ca 1610 : Birth of Lubin Baugin at Pithiviers (Loiret), into a well-off family.
- Between 1622 et 1628 : Painter's apprenticeship and training. He must have completed these by a painstaking study of the decoration of the Château of Fontainebleau.
- 1629 : Baugin was received into the Society of Saint-Germain-des-Prés as a master painter. Baugin, like many artists before the foundation of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648), was unable to establish himself in Paris and had no access to any of the capital's large public commissions. He therefore took advantage of the private status of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés to produce and sell his pictures. For this same reason, Saint-Germain-des-Prés attracted foreign artists (mostly Flemish) as well as those from the provinces, such as the Le Nain brothers. It was a means for Lubin Baugin to learn about the various trends in international painting, and it was during this period that he painted his famous still lifes.
- 1632/33 (?)-1640/41 : Baugin's stay in Italy, very probably financed by his family. He settled in Rome and married a local woman. A daughter was born to them in the autumn of 1637 and then a son, in December 1639 or January 1640. Baugin took advantage of this time to learn everything he could from Rome in terms of art, and his work shows the combined influences of Correggio, Parmigianino and Raphael.
- 1641 : Evidence of his presence in Paris. On his return he produced small devotional pictures, strongly influenced by Raphael.
- 1643 : Presumed date of his reception as a master painter in the Parisian Society. Lubin Baugin ran an academy where models posed. On numerous occasions we see him take on apprentices under conditions that were not really usual for the era, thus providing proof of that generosity which the 17th Century considered to be the mother of all virtues.
- Ca 1643-1648 : He obtained important commissions, particularly large pictures for Notre-Dame de Paris, but also commissions for tapestries and engravings (including vignettes after the manner of the Jesus Christ by the Master of Sacy).
- 1645 : Painter married again following the death of his first wife.
- 1647-1649 : He was appointed to decorate the Chapelle de la Congrégation des Nobles de Notre-Dame at the Jesuit monastery in rue Saint-Antoine.
- 1650 : He earned 650 livres for the Enlèvement d'Hélène, commissioned by the Superintendant of Finances, Particelli d'Emery (the work has since disappeared). Same theme, same client and same price, indicating an established master.
- 1651 : Baugin led a team of decorators working on an altar in the church of Saint-Paul and signed a contract for the high altar of the church of Saint-Germain in Dourdan. In this same year he was received into the newly-established Royal Academy. Nineteen altarpieces and pictures painted for Notre-Dame bear witness to the standing which he had acquired. Félibien himself admitted: "At that time he was employed on a number of other works for private customers". And those were the days of Stella, Champaigne, Bourdon, Le Brun, Le Sueur etc.
- 1654 : Second remarriage, after the death of his second wife. Note that none of his wives seems to have been able to bring him wealth or social advancement.
- 1655 : Baugin was expelled from the Royal Academy for repeated absences and for having once again supported the proposals of the old Society of Painters.
- 1656 : He was openly involved in republishing the books of the empirical doctor, David Laigneau, against bloodletting. A Protestant, Laigneau had also written a treatise on alchemy. Could an interest in empiricism and alchemy exist in harmony with orthodox piety in 1660? In any case, it was the sign of a free spirit.
- 1660-1661 : Lubin Baugin entered into two transactions for churches in Pithiviers.
- 1663 : He died and was buried at the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris.
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