Eustache Le Sueur (1617 – 1655) was born in Paris and that’s where he passed his whole life. He was the son of Cathelin Le Sueur and was one of the founders of the French Academy of Painting. His father was a sculptor and turner in wood. Le Sueur studied under the painter Simon Vouet. Some paintings reproduced in tapestry brought him to the limelight, and his reputation was also boosted by a series of decorations for the Hôtel Lambert that he left uncompleted. Stylistically dominated by the art of Raphael, Vouet and Nicolas Poussin, Le Sueur was always restrained in composition by a fastidious taste and had a graceful facility in drawing. Le Sueur painted many pictures for convents and churches, among the outstanding works being his famous series of twenty two paintings of the Life of St. Bruno, and The Sermon of Saint Paul at Ephesus. His graceful facility in composition was always restrained by a very fine taste.
Le Sueur's work is considered to have lent itself readily to his art. He had a delicate perception of elevated sentiment and varied shades of grave, and possessed the power to render them. Le Sueur’s works often failed to please completely because he had too frequent recourse to conventional types, and he rarely saw color except with the clayey and cold quality proper to the school of Vouet. However, his work titled "St Paul at Ephesus" and a few other works show that he was not naturally deficient in this sense. And whenever one gets direct reference to nature, they will recognize his admirable power to read and render physiognomy of serious and varied type.
