Eustache Le Sueur
Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur (19 November 1617[
Training and career
He was born in Paris, where he spent his entire life. His father, Cathelin Le Sueur, a turner and sculptor in wood, placed him with Vouet, in whose studio he rapidly distinguished himself.[1]
Admitted at an early age into the guild of master-painters, he left them to take part in establishing the
Some paintings, illustrative of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, which were reproduced in tapestry, brought him notice, and his reputation was further enhanced by a series of decorations (Louvre) in the mansion of Lambert de Thorigny, which he left uncompleted, for their execution was frequently interrupted by other commissions. Amongst these were several pictures for the apartments of the king and queen in the Louvre, which are now missing, although they were entered in Bailly's inventory (1710); but several works produced for minor patrons have come down to us.[1]
In the gallery of the Louvre are the Angel and Hagar, from the mansion of De Tonnay Charente; Tobias and Tobit, from the Fieubet collection; several pictures executed for the church of Saint Gervais; the Martyrdom of St Lawrence, from Saint Germain de l'Auxerrois; two very fine works from the destroyed abbey of
His pupils, who aided him much in his work, were his wife's brother, Theodore Goussé, and three brothers of his own, as well as
Style
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, it was considered that Le Sueur's work lent itself readily to the engraver's art, as he had a delicate perception of varied shades of grave and elevated sentiment, and possessed the power to render them. His graceful facility in composition was always restrained by a very fine taste, but his works often fail to please completely, because, producing so much, he had too frequent recourse to conventional types, and partly because he rarely saw colour except with the cold and clayey quality proper to the school of Vouet; yet his St Paul at Ephesus and one or two other works show that he was not naturally deficient in this sense, and whenever we get direct reference to nature—as in the monks of the St Bruno series—we recognize his admirable power to read and render physiognomy of varied and serious type.[1][4]
Selected works
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The Muses: Clio, Euterpe and Thalia (between 1652 and 1655), Louvre
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Melpomene, Erato and Polyhymnia (1650s), Louvre
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An Allegory of Poetry
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Bacchus and Ariadne (about 1640) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (68.764)
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Camma Offers the Poisoned Wedding Cup to Synorix in the Temple of Diana (c. 1644), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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The Triumph of Galatea (1643–1644), private collection
Notes
- ^ This image may be instead an image of Tarquin and Lucretia (which see); the slave in the image is female but male in the Lucretia legend, but, on the other hand, the dagger is not a part of the Tamar legend.[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911, p. 500.
- ^ Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de l'Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture depuis 1648 jusqu'en 1664, Ed. Anatole de Montaiglon, Paris 1853, vol. I, p. 36.
- ^ Bowley, Graham (8 February 2020). "The Mystery of the Painting in Gallery 634". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
- ^ Guillet de St Georges, Mm. mid.; C Blanc, Histoire des peintres; Vitet, Catalogue des tableaux du Louvre; d'Argenville, Vies des peintres
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Le Sueur, Eustache". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 499–500. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
- Life of St. Bruno gallery at the Louvre