Trained in Brussels, Champaigne arrived in Paris in 1621 and was employed with the classical Baroque painter Nicolas Poussin on the decoration of the Luxembourg Palace, under the direction of Nicholas Duchesne. His career progressed rapidly under the patronage of the queen mother Marie de Médicis and the Cardinal de Richelieu, for whom he produced religious paintings and portraits. Appointed painter royal to the queen mother, Champaigne succeeded Duchesne in that position in 1628. He became a professor at the Royal Academy (1653), later its rector, and produced many pieces for the palaces and churches of Paris.

Champaigne decorated a gallery in the Palais Royal for Richelieu and executed a masterful portrait of the powerful French figure (“Cardinal Richelieu”; c. 1635, Louvre, Paris). His strongest works are the natural and lifelike psychological portraits he produced of eminent contemporaries. Blending Flemish, French, and Italian elements, his work is characterized by a brilliant colour sense, a monumental conception of the figure, and a sober use of composition. His portrait style shows the influence of Peter Paul Rubens and Sir Anthony Van Dyck.

In 1643 Champaigne became involved with Jansenism, an ascetic sect, and he rejected previous Baroque techniques. His paintings became simplified and more austere, and his portraits, which often portray the sitter dressed in black, demonstrate his sensitivity toward and understanding of people. One of the masterpieces of his later period is “Ex Voto de 1662” (1662, Louvre), which depicts the miraculous cure of his daughter, a nun at the Jansenist convent of Port Royal. In his theory of art Champaigne emphasized drawing and was possibly the originator of the drawing-versus-colour controversy that embroiled the French Academy until well into the 18th century.