Le Nain brothers

French painters. By 1630 the three brothers—Antoine (c. 1600–1648), Louis (c. 1600–1648), and Mathieu (c. 1607–1677)—had established a workshop together in Paris. They are said to have worked in harmony, often collaborating on the same picture. Most notable of their works are the dignified and sympathetic genre paintings of peasant life. Their realism is unique in 17th-century French art. None of the brothers' works bears more than a surname, and today they are treated as a single painter.

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