Louis (or Antoine?) Le Nain, Peasant Interior with an Old Flute Player, c. 1642, oil on canvas, 21 5/16 x 24 7/16 in., 54.1 x 62.1 cm, AP 1984.22. Kimbell Art Museum. © 2016 Kimbell Art Museum

The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of Seventeenth-Century France will be the first major exhibition in the United States devoted to the Le Nain brothers, Antoine, Louis and Mathieu, who were active in Paris during the 1630s and 1640s. It will gather more than 50 of their best paintings and highlight the brothers' full range of production, with altarpieces, private devotional paintings, portraits and those poignant images of peasants on which their celebrity rests. Masterworks will come from public and private collections in Europe and North America, with major loans from the Musée du Louvre and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, as well as museums throughout France. Until recently, the work of the Le Nains has been shrouded in mystery. Little is known of their lives, and the attribution of their paintings to the hands of the individual brothers has been hotly debated. The exhibition will debut new research concerning the authorship, dating and meaning of their works. It will be accompanied by the results of a major study of the paintings by the conservation departments of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Kimbell Art Museum.

This exhibition is organized by the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Musée du Louvre-Lens.

May 22, 2016 to September 11, 2016. On view in the Renzo Piano Pavilion

Antoine Le Nain, Three Young Musicians, circa 1630. Oil On Wood, 10 3/4 x 13 1/2 in., 27.3 x 34.3 cm, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Anonymous gift, M.58.25. © Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

 Louis Le Nain, Peasant Interior, c. 1645. Oil On Canvas, 21 7/8 x 25 1/2 in., 55.6 x 64.7 cm, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.20. © National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Louis (or Antoine?) Le Nain, Repas de paysans, 1642. Oil On Canvas, 97 x 122 cm, Musée du Louvre, M.I. 1088. © Musée du Louvre

Louis Le Nain, Famille de paysans dans un interieur, c.1643. Oil On Canvas, 113 x 159 cm, Musée du Louvre. Acquired from the bequest of Arthur Pernolet, 1915, R.F. 2081. © Musée du Louvre

Le Nain Brothers, The Adoration of the Shepherds, c. 1640. Oil On Canvas, 109.5 x 137.4 cm, National Gallery, London. Bought, 1962, NG6331. © National Gallery, London

Mathieu Le Nain, Allégorie de la Victoire, c. 1635. Oil On Canvas, 151 x 115 cm, Musée du Louvre, R.F. 1971-9 © 1991 RMN

Antoine Le Nain, La Messe pontificale ou Un évêque montant à l'autel, 17th century. Oil On Copper, 54 x 65 cm, Musée du Louvre. Revolutionary confiscation of the collection of the comte d'Angiviller, 6841. © Musée du Louvre

Antoine Le Nain, Portrait de famille dans un intérieur, 17th century. Oil On Canvas. Musée du Louvre. © Musée du Louvre

The Le Nain Brothers, Three Men and a Boy, about 1647-8. Oil On Canvas, 54.1 x 64.5 cm, National Gallery, London. Presented by Mrs N. Clark Neill in memory of her husband, 1936, NG4857. © National Gallery, London