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A French painter in Classical Baroque style, Eustache Le Sueur depicted
allegorical, religious and mythological subjects. He spent his entire career in Paris and had a
distinguished reputation both for his painting skills and for the fact
he was a founder of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in
Paris and one of its first twelve professors.
Also, the reproduction of
some of his paintings in tapestry brought him added attention as did
his decorating for the Hotel Lambert in Paris for the Cabinet of the
Muses. Shown in the painting titled The Muses: Clio, Euterpe and Thalia
are goddesses, companions of Apollo, creating poetry and music.
However, he left this work uncompleted. He also did a series of
decorations for the mansion of Lambert de Thorigny, which added to Le
Sueur's reputation, and for the King and Queen in the Louvre, he did
decorations for their apartments. In addition, he did many
religious paintings for churches and convents and a series of 22
paintings of the Life of St. Bruno, now in the Louvre.
Eustache Le Sueur had helpers with many of his projects including Tb.
Gouss, his wife's brother, and three of his own brothers as well as
several landscape painters. Many of his paintings have been
engraved because he was such a skilled draftsman that they lent
themselves to the engraving process.
As a young man, he had the distinction of early admission to the guild
of Master Painters. His teacher was Simon Vouet (1590-1649), a
leading French Baroque painter who occupied the title of
First Painter at the court of Louis XIII. Le Sueur, at age
sixteen, was placed with Vouet by his father, Cathelin Le Sueur, a
sculptor in wood. Unlike most of his peers, Le Sueur did not
train in Rome but remained in Paris under the influence of Vouet and
the Baroque style. However, in his later years, he became
engrossed in the paintings of the Italian painter Raphael (1483-1520).
Reportedly he led a simple, secluded life, disavowing excessive indulgences.
Sources include:
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/l/le_sueur/index.html
Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustache_Le_Sueur
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=456&page=1
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