Paris. This work employed the artist three years, and furnished ample proof of the abilities of Le Sueur. "But the pictures of the Chartreux," observes Mr. Fuseli, "lately consigned to the profane clutch of restoration in the attic of the Luxembourg, are now little more than the faint traces of what they were when issuing from the hand of their master. They have suffered martyrdom more than once It is well that the nature of the subject permitted little more than fresco in the colouring at first, and that the great merit of their execution consisted in the breadth of vehicle which monastic drapery demands, else we should have lost even the fragments that remain. The old man in the foreground; the head of St. Bruno, and some of the disputants in the background of the Prediction; the Bishops and the condemned defunct in the Funeral; the apparition of St. Bruno himself in the Camp; the female figure in the Eleemosynary Scene; and what has suffered least of all, the Death of St. Bruno, contain the least disputable marks of the master's primitive touch. The subject of the whole, abstractedly considered, is the personification of sanctity, and has been represented in the series with a purity which seems to place the artist's heart on a level with that of his hero. The simplicity, which tells the tale of resignation and innocence, despises all contrast of more varied composition, though not always with equal success. St. Bruno, on his bed, visited by angels; building or viewing the plan for building his rocky retreat; the hunting scene; and the apotheosis, might probably have admitted happier combinations. As, in the different retouchings, the faces have suffered much, the expression must be estimated by COUNT ROGER KNEELING, &c. those that escaped; for what still remains, we may conclude that it was not inferior to the composition." This excellent painter was a pupil of Simon Vouet. He soon surpassed his master, and though he had quitted France, became, in some points of the art, one of the first painters of his time. His reputation rose to so high a degree, that he was called the French Raphael. He studied those antiques to which he had access in his own country, with all possible assiduity, and seemed to be always ambitious of imitating the style of Raphael, as well as other distinguished masters of the Roman school, but aiming to be delicate, his proportions are sometimes too slender, and his figures frequently appear to have too great a length. The invention of Le Sueur was easy and fertile; his compositions grand and judicious; his draperies shew simplicity and grandeur, united in conformity to the taste of Raphael, and in manner of his fields, he endeavoured to observe the order of the antique. His cotemporary, Le Brun, appears to have been very jealous of his superior talents; for, on hearing of his death, he malignantly said, "I feel now as if I had a thorn just taken out of my foot." Le Sueur died young, and left behind him many works; such as "The Cloister of the Chartreux at Paris," "Alexander and his Physician," &c. that might rival the works of the greatest painters for eloquence of design, beauty of form, and truth of expression. In colouring he was defective, and knew but little of the Chiar-Oscuro, or of those colours which are called local. Le Sueur had undoubtedly very extraordinary merit, but that merit is blended with great imperfections. His taste of design is justly to be admired, but his naked figures are usually faulty in disposition. The distribution of his lights and shadows is not judicious; but the attitudes are always noble, simple, and natural. His expression is great, and well adapted to his subject; and though it must be allowed, he erred in many points, he excelled in the superior and most difficult parts of his profession. |