Lot 117: Eustache Le Sueur (Paris 1617-1655)

A draped figure walking to the left
with inscription 'Le Sueur' (twice, once erased) on the mount
black and white chalk on brown paper, watermark grapes
16 3/8 x 5 1/2 in. (416 x 140 mm.)

A. Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1665), Paris, 1987 (reprinted with additions in 2000), no. D.385.
J. Labbé and L. Bicart-Sée, La collection de dessins d'Antoine Dezallier d'Argenville, Paris, 1996, no. 2699.

A.-J. Dezallier d'Argenville (L. 2951), his number '2699'; Paris, 18-28 January 1779, part of lot 348.

Alain Mérot dates this drawing to the last years of the artist's life, in 1650-1655. Dezallier d'Argenville had 29 drawings by Le Sueur. In his Abrégé de la vie des peintres he described the style and technique of Le Sueur (volume IV, p. 111): 'He usually drew on grey paper with black chalk with a light grey wash covered in thin hatching and heightened with white chalk, which is nearly always rubbed. His elegant contours, so sure was he of his line, are of a surprising facility [...]. The type of the figures, the character of the heads, their expression, a noble simplicity, a light and beautiful way to drape and the way of thinking ensure that Le Sueur is always recognisable'.