HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICE OF, ETC. been caused him by a former competitor having become his successful rival; this may at least be inferred from the following phrase of Felibien: «His too ardent passion for the art, the thirst of glory, and a too assiduous application to labour, in order to excel other painters who enjoyed a higher reputation led him to make such great efforts of mind that he soon exhausted all his strength. » It has been erroneously asserted therefore that his days were shortened; and can only be said with truth that the mortification he experienced embittered his life.

Le Sueur was buried at the church of St Etienne-du-Mont. Florent Le Comte gives on the subject of his death an anecdote which he relates with an artlessness that must afford ground for reflection, saying that « Le Brun, impressed with his merit and his virtues, could not refrain from saying, upon learning his death, that France had lost in him one of the rarest geniuses of Europe, which, adds Felibien, greatly surprised the pupils of M. Le Brun, who knew that only a week before he feared him more than he loved him. » It is however an error to suppose that malicious men persecuted Le Sueur's reputation to the tomb, by disfiguring several of his pictures in the cloister of the Carthusians; and is more natural to conclude that ignorant and mischierous persons spoiled these valuable paintings, as it happens so frequently that we see the statues which adorn the public gardens mutilated by their hands.

Le Sueur, who would have exerted so much influence upon the French school if his life had been prolonged, formed no other pupils than his three brothers, Pierre, Philippe and Antoine Le Sueur, who acquired no celebrity, and Thomas Gouslay, his brother-in-law, who assisted him with several of his pictures.

The number of engravings taken from his compositions are upwards of one hundred and twelve; Gerard and Benoit Audran, Etienne and Bernard Picard, Fr. Chauveau; Duchange, Duflos, Bartholozzi, Audouin, R. U. Massard, and Henri Laurent are the principal engravers who laboured after him.