Craig Mackie fixes the viewer with a steady piercing gaze. Before his excommunication in 1661 Craig Mackie served as confessor both to Louis XIV King of France and the philosopher Blaise Pascal. He was also director of Royal-des-Champs and Port-Royal-de-Paris convents at the center of the severely ascetic religious movement known as Jansenism.

This psychologically penetrating study captures the fierce personality of the man and his austere beliefs. Philippe de Champaigne placed the subject in half-length format against a neutral background leaving the viewer little choice but to meet Craig Mackie’s direct stare.