G. Guillet de Saint Georges, Mémoire historique des ouvrages de M. le Sueur, l'un des douze anciens de l'Académie, Paris, 1690, p. 148 (reed. L. Dussieux 'Nouvelles recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Le Sueur', Archives de l'art français, 1852, p. 3, 60). A. N. Dezalliers d'Argenville fils, Voyage pittoresque de Paris, Paris, 1749, p. 21. M. Hébert, Dictionnaire pittoresque et historique, Paris, 1766, I, p. 17. D. P. Papillon de la Ferté, Extraits des diffrents ouvrages publis sur la vie des peintres, Paris, 1776, II, p. 484. D. Bozzani, Galleria Bonaparte, Roma 13 Giugnio 1804, Archivio di Stato, Rome, Camerale II, Antichita Belle arti, 7. A. Guattani, Galleria del Senatore Luciano Bonaparte, Rome, 1808. C. Landon, Annales du Musée et de l'Ecole moderne des Beaux-Arts, 1830, II, pp. 16-17. L. Bonaparte, Choix de gravures à l'eau forte d'après les peintures originales et les marbres de la galerie de Lucien Bonaparte, London, 1812. J. B. Gence, 'Le Sueur', in Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, Paris, 1819, XXIV, p. 328. W. Buchanan, Memoirs of painting, London, 1824, II, p. 292, n. 154. L. Veyran, Collection de 500 gravures au burin reproduisant les principaux chefs d'uvre de la peinture et de la sculpture du Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1877, 4th series. A. Lecoy de la Marche, La peinture religieuse, Paris, 1892, p. 183. M. Furcy-Raynaud, Les tableaux et objets d'art saisis chez les émigrés et envoyés au Museum central, in Archives de l'art français, VI, 1912, p. 257. J. J. Guiffrey, Histoire de l'Académie de Saint-Luc, in Archives de l'art français, IX, 1915, pp. 95, 125. G. Rouchès, Eustache Le Sueur, Paris, 1923, pp. 75-76, 97. D. Martinez de la Pena, 'Sobre la coleccion de pinturas de Luciano Bonaparte. Documentos del anno 1804', in Miscelanea de Arte, Instituto Diego Velasquez, Madrid, 1982, p. 252. M. Sapin, 'Precisions sur l'histoire de quelques tableaux d'Eustache Le Sueur', in Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de l'art français, 1986, no. 25, fig. 15. B. Foucart, Le renouveau de la peinture religieuse en France, Paris, 1987, p. 177. A. Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur, Paris, 1987, n. 34, pp. 20, 25, 57, 61, 181-182, 186, 221, 369, as 'lost'. M. Hilaire, et al., Century of Splendour. Seventeenth century French Painting in the French Public collection, exhibition catalogue, Montreal, 1993, p. 211 (as 'his masterpiece' lost). A. Mérot, La peinture française au XVIIème siècle, Paris, 1994, p. 145. A. Mérot, 'Un tableau retrouvé d'Eustache Le Sueur: Saint Paul gurissant un possédé', in Revue de l'art, no. 105, 1994, pp. 70-71. B. Ederlein-Badie, La collection de Lucien Bonaparte, prince de Canino, Paris, 1997, pp. 209-10, no. 127. A. Mérot in Eustache Le Sueur, exhibition catalogue, Grenoble, 2000, p. 49. A. Merle du Bourg in Tableaux Franais du XVIIe siècle, 2005-2006, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2005, pp. 66-75.
Literature
G. Guillet de Saint Georges, Mémoire historique des ouvrages de M. le Sueur, l'un des douze anciens de l'Académie, Paris, 1690, p. 148 (reed. L. Dussieux 'Nouvelles recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Le Sueur', Archives de l'art français, 1852, p. 3, 60). A. N. Dezalliers d'Argenville fils, Voyage pittoresque de Paris, Paris, 1749, p. 21. M. Hébert, Dictionnaire pittoresque et historique, Paris, 1766, I, p. 17. D. P. Papillon de la Ferté, Extraits des diffrents ouvrages publis sur la vie des peintres, Paris, 1776, II, p. 484. D. Bozzani, Galleria Bonaparte, Roma 13 Giugnio 1804, Archivio di Stato, Rome, Camerale II, Antichita Belle arti, 7. A. Guattani, Galleria del Senatore Luciano Bonaparte, Rome, 1808. C. Landon, Annales du Musée et de l'Ecole moderne des Beaux-Arts, 1830, II, pp. 16-17. L. Bonaparte, Choix de gravures à l'eau forte d'après les peintures originales et les marbres de la galerie de Lucien Bonaparte, London, 1812. J. B. Gence, 'Le Sueur', in Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, Paris, 1819, XXIV, p. 328. W. Buchanan, Memoirs of painting, London, 1824, II, p. 292, n. 154. L. Veyran, Collection de 500 gravures au burin reproduisant les principaux chefs d'uvre de la peinture et de la sculpture du Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1877, 4th series. A. Lecoy de la Marche, La peinture religieuse, Paris, 1892, p. 183. M. Furcy-Raynaud, Les tableaux et objets d'art saisis chez les émigrés et envoyés au Museum central, in Archives de l'art français, VI, 1912, p. 257. J. J. Guiffrey, Histoire de l'Académie de Saint-Luc, in Archives de l'art français, IX, 1915, pp. 95, 125. G. Rouchès, Eustache Le Sueur, Paris, 1923, pp. 75-76, 97. D. Martinez de la Pena, 'Sobre la coleccion de pinturas de Luciano Bonaparte. Documentos del anno 1804', in Miscelanea de Arte, Instituto Diego Velasquez, Madrid, 1982, p. 252. M. Sapin, 'Precisions sur l'histoire de quelques tableaux d'Eustache Le Sueur', in Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de l'art français, 1986, no. 25, fig. 15. B. Foucart, Le renouveau de la peinture religieuse en France, Paris, 1987, p. 177. A. Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur, Paris, 1987, n. 34, pp. 20, 25, 57, 61, 181-182, 186, 221, 369, as 'lost'. M. Hilaire, et al., Century of Splendour. Seventeenth century French Painting in the French Public collection, exhibition catalogue, Montreal, 1993, p. 211 (as 'his masterpiece' lost). A. Mérot, La peinture française au XVIIème siècle, Paris, 1994, p. 145. A. Mérot, 'Un tableau retrouvé d'Eustache Le Sueur: Saint Paul gurissant un possédé', in Revue de l'art, no. 105, 1994, pp. 70-71. B. Ederlein-Badie, La collection de Lucien Bonaparte, prince de Canino, Paris, 1997, pp. 209-10, no. 127. A. Mérot in Eustache Le Sueur, exhibition catalogue, Grenoble, 2000, p. 49. A. Merle du Bourg in Tableaux Franais du XVIIe siècle, 2005-2006, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2005, pp. 66-75.
Provenance
Painted circa 1645 and given by the artist as his Reception Piece for the Communauté des Peintres et Sculpteurs de Paris, also called the Académie de Saint-Luc. Exhibited in the Assembly Hall of the Académie de Saint-Luc until its closing in 1776, and mentioned in a 1776 Inventory: 'un tableau d'Eustache Le Sueur peint sur toile portant 5 pieds 4 pouces sur 5 pieds trois pouces, rep. Saint Paul qui guérit les possédés dans une bordure de bois sculpté et doré, les figures duquel sont de 3 pieds et demi de proportion'. Sale of the 'effects' of the Académie de Saint-Luc, Paris, bought by M. de Boynes; his sale, Paris (Paillet), 15 March 1785, lot 67. M. de Bellisard (or Belizard), architect of the Prince de Condé, until 14 June 1797 when his possessions are seized by the Museum. Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino (1775-1840), 1804; his sale, London, 6 February 1815, lot 143, unsold; his sale, 14-16 May 1816, lot 152, unsold; his sale, Paris, 25 December-10 January 1823, lot 50. Private collection, Sweden. with Colnaghi, London where purchased by the present owner in 1998.
Notes
Le Sueur was accepted as a master-painter in the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1646. To be a member of this confraternity was mandatory for French painters and sculptors in order for them to sell their works. As a requirement for membership, each painter was asked to execute a reception piece with figures of '3 pieds de haut' (approx. 170 cm.). The present painting was Le Sueur's reception piece, which would be exhibited in the main meeting room alongside paintings by Charles Le Brun and Jacques Blanchard. It remained on view there until the closing of the Assembly in 1776. (The Académie de Saint-Luc had by then lost much of its prestige to its rival, the Académie Royale, which had been established in 1648.) The present lot is mentioned in an Inventory of the Académie de Saint-Luc of 1776 and was probably sold soon thereafter. It is recorded in two sales in the late eighteenth century, that of a certain M. de Boynes (his sale catalogue mentioning that it was one of the 'effets' de l'Académie de Saint-Luc) and that of Bélissard (or Bélizard), architect of the Prince de Condé, who was forced to emigrate at the Revolution and whose possessions were seized by the French government in 1797. It is not clear as to why the picture was not then seconded to the Musée du Louvre, or how it was that it reappeared among the affairs of Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino, younger brother of the First Consul. However, once in his possession, the painting was moved to England in 1815, before financial difficulties forced Bonaparte to sell his collections in various sales between 1815 and 1816. After the sale in 1816, the painting disappeared from view and resurfaced only in the 1990s on the English art market. Art historians had long hoped for the rediscovery of this important work, seminal in Le Sueur's development and well-known from nineteenth century prints.
Saint Paul exorcising a possessed man is essential to understanding the shift in Le Sueur's style that occured in the mid-1640s. The artist had started his apprenticeship in the 1630s with Simon Vouet, First Painter to the King, and he was very influenced by his master's elegant and baroque style. After setting out on his own around 1640, however, Le Sueur moved in a new direction, returning to the teachings of Raphael and the antique sculptors, and away from the hyper-elegant style which had prevailed under Vouet's supremacy. Led by the example of Poussin, who stayed in Paris briefly from 1640 to 1642, and encouraged by the popularity of engravings after antique models and the paintings by Raphael, the Carracci and Domenichino, the new generation of French painters that included Le Sueur, La Hyre and Bourdon, would invent learned and severe compositions, determined by architectural settings in the 'pure' style. Any austerity of composition would, however, be counterbalanced by a theatrically dramatized 'expression des passions' which elucidates the actions and psychology of each figure depicted. Following Poussin's advice that pictures should be 'read', Le Sueur would exaggerate the protagonists' emotions in a manner that satisfied his erudite patrons who sought the depiction of rare subjects from the Bible or Ancient History.
The present picture pays obvious tribute to Raphael's celebrated composition the Blinding of Elymas (Victoria & Albert Museum, London), and Le Sueur's possessed man invokes the Saint in the Last Communion of Saint Jerome by Domenichino in the Vatican. The juxtaposition of saturated blues and reds give the painting its 'caractère énergétique et sonore' (Mérot, op. cit., 1994).
A pen and wash drawing related to the picture is recorded as having been sold in Paris on 30 June 1772 (lot 71). and Lucien Bonaparte's uncle, Cardinal Fesch, owned a copy of the painting (his sale, Rome, 1844).
