Michael Angelo, Titian and Leonardo di Vinci, who lived nearly a century, have left productions that are justly admired, and their names are always mentioned in the most honourable manner; but so long a life is not necessary for the acquisition of equal celebrity, for as much praise is bestowed on Raphael, Lucas de Leyden, Paul Potter and Le Sueur, who did not attain their fortieth year, and yet left many pictures which merit the admiration they receive. The works of Le Sueur, so far from leading him to the honours and wealth which he ought to have expected from them, left him in a state bordering upon poverty. His cotemporaries seemed to pay little attention to his merit, and in giving him what was scarcely sufficient for his subsistence, considered his labours overpaid.

Eustache Le Sueur, who was born at Paris in 1617, was taught the principles of design by his father, a statuary but little known; but the natural genius that he evinced for painting became a sufficient motive for him to quit his father's workroom, and enter the school of Vouet, where he became the companion of Mignard and Le Brun. Nothing particular is known relative to the youthful period of this artist's life, except that he did not go to Italy, but formed his style by the studył

of antique statues, such pictures of Raphael as were at Paris, and engravings taken from the best productions of that master.

Le Sueur married en 1642, at the age of twenty five years; but he probably had no children, and devoted himself to different works, the most important of which are the twenty two pictures of the life of St Bruno, painted by him in the cloister of the Carthusian friars, between 1645 and 1648. Some persons who take pleasure in finding the marvellous and the romantic in every thing have pretented that if he was SO ill paid for these pictures, it was because Le Sueur executed them to discharge a debt towards the Carthusians, with vhom, some years before, he had found a secure asylum from proceedings which he dreaded, on account of a duel in which he dangerously wounded his adversary. Such an absurd relation is entitled to no credit, and an irrefragable proof of the lowness of price paid for the productions of Le Sueur is contained in the Isographie des hommes célèbres, in which is inserted a receipt of one hundred livres for a picture for the altar-piece of the Magdalen. This receipt is dated towards the end of 1651 when the artist had attained his thirty fifth year; and being made out in the name of Dom Anselme, it may be presumed that the picture in question is one of those which be executed that year for the abbey of Marmoutiers, near Tours. The likewise undertook several pictures for the church of St Gervais, but in what year is not known.

Le Sueur, as well as all the painters of Paris, formed a part of the Academy of St Luke. Upon the establishment of the royal Academy of painting in 1648, he was one of the twelve ancients, that is one of those who was to deliver lectures for a month in every year.

In 1647, he was employed to paint, for the company of goldsmiths, the picture which the chiefs of that corporation presented annually, in the month of May, to the cathedral church

of mai de Notre-Dame. This picture, representing St Paul causing the books of the Gentiles to be burnt, is a chef-d'œuvre which elevates Le Sueur to the rank of the illustrious painter in whom the city of Rome glories. Le Sueur has rightly been named the Raphael of France, for no artist resembles more closely that prince of painting, by the judgment and grandeur of his compositions, by the art of casting drapery and arranging the folds of it with elegance and simplicity. Like Raphael, he possessed the skill of varying the attitudes of is heads, according to the condition, age and character of the personages; like him, he was able to depict the affections of the soul;and like him too he was deficient in that vigorous tone of colouring and that perfect skill in clare-obscure, which were attributes of the Venetian and Flemish schools; but his design was wanting in that extreme purity which forms the chief merit of Raphael.

As Leveque and Taillasson have already remarked, the compositions of Le Sueur are simple and majestic; nothing useless is introduced into them to form contrasts, to create fine assemblages of figures, or to astonish the spectator by the bustle of a theatrical scene; his paintings are composed and designed with so much taste that one might believe them to be not merely the work of art; they appear so real that they seem to be taken after nature. What Le Sueur wanted to give to his talents the full developement of which they were susceptible, was to have had, like Le Brun, grand works to execute.

The purity of Le Sueur's morals and the mildness of his disposition acquired him universal esteem; but his talents raised up envious persons against him, whilst his modesty and strict integrity prevented him seeking the support of powerful patrons; he was, howeved, in favour with M. Lambert de Thorigny, who employed him eleven years in painting different apartments of his mansion. He had scarcely terminated his labours when in the month of May 1655, he died of a consumption, augmented perhaps by the mortification that might have

been caused him by a former competitor having become his successful rival; this may at least be inferred from the following phrase of Felibien : « His too ardent passion for the art, the thirst of glory, and a too assiduous application to labour, in order to excel other painters who enjoyed a higher reputation, led him to make such great efforts of mind that he soon exhausted all his strength. It has been erroneously asserted therefore that his days were shortened; and can only be said with truth that the mortification he experienced embittered his life.

Le Sueur was buried at the church of St Etienne-du-Mont. Florent Le Comte gives on the subject of his death an anecdote which he relates with an artlessness that must afford ground for reflexion, saying that Le Brun, impressed with his merit and his virtues, could not refrain from saying, upon learning his death, that France had lost in him one of the rarest geniuses of Europe, which, adds Felibien, greatly surprised the pupils of M.Le Brun, who knew that only a week before he feared him more than he loved him. It is however an error to suppose that malicious men persecuted Le Sueur's reputation to the tomb, by disfiguring several of his pictures in the cloister of the Carthusians; and is more natural to conclude that ignorant and mischievous persons spoiled these valuable paintings, as it happens so frequently that we see the statues which adorn the public gardens mutilated by their hands.

Le Sueur, who would have exerted so much influence upon the French school if his life had been prolonged, formed no other pupils than his three brothers, Pierre, Philippe and Antoine Le Sueur, who acquired no celebrity, and Thomas Gouslay, his brother-in-law, who assisted him with several of his pictures.

The number of engravings taken from his compositions are upwards of one hundred and twelve; Gerard and Benoit Audran, Etienne and Bernard Picard, Fr. Chauveau; Duchange, Duflos, Bartholozzi, Audouin, R. U. Massard, and Henri Lau