Le Sueur, Eustache

Le Sueur, Eustache (b Paris, 19 Nov. 1616; d Paris, 30 Apr. 1655). French painter. He was a pupil of Vouet, whose influence is strong on his early works (Presentation of the Virgin, c.1640, Hermitage, St Petersburg). In the 1640s he was profoundly affected by the paintings of Poussin (who visited Paris 1640–2) and his work became more classical. He lacked Poussin's heroic grandeur, and he added a tenderness of his own to the master's manner, as in his most important works, a series of paintings (begun 1645) illustrating the life of St Bruno, done for the Charterhouse of Paris and now in the Louvre. In the last years of his life his chief model became Raphael, particularly through engravings of his tapestry designs. Le Sueur was a founder member of the Académie Royale (see academy) in 1648. In his own day he was almost as well thought of as Poussin, and in the 18th century he was known as ‘the French Raphael’, but his reputation declined in the 19th century and he now has the status of an attractive minor master.