LE SUEUR, EUSTACHE (1616-55), one of the founders of the French Academy of painting, was born on Nov. 19, 1616, at Paris, where he passed his whole life, and where he died on April 3o, 1655. He was the son of Cathelin Le Sueur, a turner and sculptor in wood, who placed his son with Vouet. Admitted at an early age into the guild of master-painters, he left them to take part in establishing the academy of painting and sculpture, and was one of the first 12 professors of that body. Some paintings, illustrative of the Hypnerotomachia Polyphili, which were repro duced in tapestry, brought him into notice, and his reputation was further enhanced by a series of decorations (Louvre) in the man sion of Lambert de Thorigny, which he left uncompleted. He also painted many pictures for churches and convents, some of which are now in the Louvre. His most important works are "St. Paul preaching at Ephesus" (Louvre), painted for the goldsmith's corporation in 1649; and his famous series of the "Life of St.
Bruno" (Louvre), executed in the cloister of the Chartreux. These last have more personal character than anything else which Le Sueur produced, and much of the originals survives in spite of injuries and restorations and removal from the wall to canvas. The Louvre also possesses many fine drawings, chiefly executed in black and white chalk. His pupils, who aided him much in his work, were his wife's brother, Th. Gousse, and three brothers of his own, as well as Claude Lefebvre and Patel the landscape painter.
He was a charming draughtsman. His graceful facility in corn position was always restrained by a very fine taste. He had too frequent recourse to conventional types, and he rarely saw colour except with the cold and clayey quality proper to the school of Vouet ; though his art was the work of a sincere and sentimental disposition.
See L. Vitet, Eustache Le Sueur (1853).