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EUSTACHE LE SUEUR
Paris 1616 ~ 1655 Paris
Eustache Le Sueur was
one of the most important painters in 17th century France and one of the founders of French classicism. He was considered the 'French Raphael' and on a par with Nicolas Poussin and Charles Le Brun. Circa 1632 Le
Sueur's precociousness and family connections gained him entry into the prestigious studio of Simon Vouet who had returned from Italy in 1627. He remained there until about 1642. In 1644–45 he was admitted as a
master in the Paris painters' guild. During this period, he came to rely on his drawings, both for details and for overall compositions, as an essential part of the creative process. In 1649 Le Sueur, appointed Peintre Ordinaire
du Roi, was commissioned to paint the May of Notre-Dame de Paris, the large painting presented annually to the cathedral of Notre-Dame by the goldsmith's guild. During the last years of his life, and
particularly after 1652, Le Sueur combined decorative elegance with compositional severity.1
It was a tradition of the French monarchy that on Maundy Thursday the King would wash the feet of the sick in a hospital. King Louis XIII paid strict attention to this
habit, described in the Introduction de la Vie Dévote by Saint François de Sales (1567–1622), founder of the Order of the Visitation and one of the leading figures of the Counter-Reformation in France.2
Our drawing is a study for the figure of Saint Louis (King Louis IX
of France) in Saint Louis Washing the Feet of The Sick, one of four late pictures painted for the Benedictine Abbey of Marmoutiers near Tours between 1654 and 1655.3 A contract, now lost, between the artist
and Dom Cyrille Consault, signed 18 February, 1654, mentioned specifically the painting which is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours.3 Two other drawings are known for this painting, one for the King's attendants, Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the other for the sick man whose feet are being washed, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris.4
1. Alain Mérot,The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner, vol. 19, pp.246–249.
2. Alain Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur, 1616–1655, Paris, 1987, p.323
3. Op. cit., pp.322–324, cat. 189 and fig. 465.
4. Op. cit., figs. 463 and 464
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