Eustache Le Sueur

Eustache Le Sueur (1617–1655) was born in Paris and spent his entire life there. His father, a wood-turner and sculptor, placed him in the studio of Simon Vouet, where he quickly distinguished himself. In 1648 he helped to found the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and was elected one of the original twelve elders in charge of its administration. He is known chiefly for religious subjects, painted in the restrained classical manner called Parisian Atticism, of which he was a leading exponent. Paintings illustrating the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, reproduced in tapestry, first brought him notice, and decorations for the mansion of Lambert de Thorigny and pictures for the royal apartments in the Louvre followed. The Louvre now holds his series on the Life of St Bruno, painted for the cloister of the Carthusians, and St Paul Preaching at Ephesus, made for the goldsmiths' guild in 1649. He was also a prolific draughtsman in chalk. Here: Christ on the Cross with the Magdalen, the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist, and Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist.