Nicolas Tournier

Nicolas Tournier (* 1590 in Montbeliard, † 1638 or 1639 in Toulouse ) was a French painter in the Caravaggio's.

His father was a painter André and the parents were Protestant refugees from Besançon. Tournier worked from 1619 to 1626 in Rome, then went to the South of France. He was in 1627 in Carcassonne and was from 1632 in Toulouse.

He is next to Nicolas Régnier, Simon Vouet and Valentin de Boulogne as one of the leading French Caravaggists. They say he was a student of Valentin in Rome and was also affected by the Bartolomeo Manfredi Caravaggists.

2001 was dedicated to him in an exhibition Toulouse.

Many of his paintings are in Toulouse, but also eg in the Louvre ( Crucifixion, The Concert ), the Prado and the Hermitage as well as various museums in the United States. There are problems with the attribution of individual paintings because of the similarity with other Caravaggio.