Presentation of the Virgin

religious

This painting is full of reminiscences of Simon Vouet, the teacher of Le Sueur, in fact the composition was inspired by a painting of Vouet. But it shows also the strong influence of Nicolas Poussin, and it has also features which are more individual. The types are still those of the master, but the modeling is firmer and the design slightly more rigid and classical.

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About the Artist

Eustache Le Sueur

1616 – 1655

Le Sueur (also spelled Lesueur ), French painter known for his religious pictures in the style of the French classical Baroque . Le Sueur was one of the founders and first professors of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. Le Sueur studied under the painter Simon Vouet and was admitted at an early age into the guild of master painters. Some paintings reproduced in tapestry brought him notice, and his reputation was further enhanced by a series of decorations for the Hôtel Lambert that he left uncompleted. He painted many pictures for churches and convents, among the most important being St. Paul Preaching at Ephesus (Louvre), and his famous series of 22 paintings of the Life of St. Bruno (Louvre), executed in the cloister of the Chartreux. Stylistically dominated by the art of Nicolas Poussin, Raphael, and Vouet, Le Sueur had a graceful facility in drawing and was always restrained in composition by a fastidious taste.

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