Meekness

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1650

Eustache Le Sueur (French, 1616–1655)

Eustache Le Sueur painted the eight Beatitudes, the ideal qualities Jesus identified in his Sermon on the Mount in the Bible, for the private chapel in his patron Guillaume Birssonnet’s Paris home. This personification of meekness was part of that decoration and accompanied an altarpiece of the Annunciation, monochrome scenes of the life of the Virgin Mary, and a ceiling depicting her Assumption. The Beatitudes, with their patterned gold ground, lined the lower story of this elegant ensemble. Only the Annunciation altarpiece and two of the Beatitudes survive.

Status: On View, Gallery 209
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Eustache Le Sueur
Title: Meekness
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1650
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 100.7 × 67 cm (39 7/8 × 26 3/8 in.); Framed: 111.8 × 77.5 cm (44 × 30 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Reference Number: 1974.233
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/47159/manifest.json

[Georges] Guillet de Saint-Georges, “Eustache Le Sueur [1690],” in Mémoires inédits sur la vie et les ouvrages des membres de l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, vol. 1 (Paris, 1854), p. 164.
Florent Le Comte, Cabinet des singularitez d’architecture, peinture, sculpture, et gravure, vol. 3, (Paris, 1700), p. 98.
[Antoine Nicholas] D [ézallier d’Argenville (fils)], Voyage pittoresque de Paris, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1752), p. 207; reprint (Geneva, 1972), p. 49.
[Antoine Joseph Dézallier d’Argenville (père)], Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres, new ed., vol. 4 (Paris, 1762), p.116.
Hébert, Dictionnaire pittoresque et historique, vol.1, Paris, 1766, p. 152; reprint (Geneva, 1972), p. 49.
L[ouis] Dussieux and A[natole] de Montaiglon, Nouvelles recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages d’Eustache Le Sueur (Paris, 1852), pp. 26, 63.
Charles Blanc, Historie des peintres de toutes les écoles, pt. 3, Ecole française, vol. 1 (Paris, 1865), p. 4.
J[ules] J[oseph] Guiffrey, “Lettres et documents sur l’acquisition des tableaux d’Eustache Le Sueur pour la collection du roi (1776-1789),” Nouvelles Archives de l’art français, année 1877, reprint (Paris, 1973), pp. 337-341.
Edmond Bonnaffé, Dictionnaire des amateurs français au XVII siècle (Paris, 1884), p. 44.
Gabriel Rouchès, Eustache Le Sueur, Paris (1923), p. 73.
Denys Sutton, “Richness of Old Masters,” Financial Times, London ed. (June 25, 1974), p. 3.
The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings (Toledo, 1976), p. 97.
Dominique Vasseur, “‘Mansuétude’ by Eustache Le Sueur,” AIC Bulletin 71, 4 (1977), pp. 8-11 (ill.).
Pierre Rosenberg, La Peinture française du XVII siècle dans les collections américaines, exh. cat. (Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 1982), p. 357, inv. no. 2 (ill.).
Christopher Wright, The French Painters of the Seventeenth Century (London, 1985), p. 218.
Marguerite Sapin, “Précisions sur l’historie de quelques tableaux d’Eustache Le Sueur,” Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de l’art français, année 1984 (1986), p. 62, no. 16, pp. 62-63, under no. 17, p. 76, under no. 49, fig. 9.
Alain Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655) (Paris, 1987), pp. 33, 244-245, under nos. 98-105, p. 247, no. 100, fig. 318.
Christopher Wright, The World’s Master Paintings from the Early Renaissance to the Present Day: A Comprehensive Listing of Works by 1,300 Painters and a Complete Guide to Their Locations Worldwide (New York, 1991), vol. 1, p. 243, vol. 2, p. 62.
Susan Wise and Malcolm Werner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago, 1996), pp. 93-98.
Eustache Le Sueur, exh. cat., Musée de Grenoble, 2000, pp. 42 (ill.). 116, under no. 33.

London, Heim Gallery, Religious and Biblical Themes in French Baroque Painting, 1974, cat.7.

Commissioned by Guillaume Brissonnet (died 1674) in 1650 for the chapel of his Paris town house [according to Guillet de Saint-Georges [1690], p. 164]; by descent to his son, Jean Baptiste Brissonnet (died 1698) [the early history of the house and its chapel decorations is recounted by Mérot 1987, pp.244-5]; sold with the house to Vincent d’Invault, 1698; sold to Jacques Turgot (died 1722), maître des Requêtes, 1714; by descent in 1757 to Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (died 1781); in 1775 the house was sold and the decorations dismantled; at Turgot’s death, the paintings passed to his heirs including Etienne François Turgot, marquis de Sousmont, to at least 1784. Vincent Donjeux, Paris; sold LeBrun et Paillet, Paris, April 29 and following, 1793, lot 330, with “Justice,” for 1,550 livres to Jouberton. Lafontaine, Paris; sold Chariot, Paris, May 28-June 2, 1821, lot 128 with “Justice”, as “L’Innocence,” for Fr 480. M. de Mauméjan, Paris; sold Lacoste, Paris, June 29-July 2, 1825, lot 40, with “Justice” as “L’Innocence.” Jean Toussaint Arrighi de Casanova, duc de Padoue (died 1853), château de Courson-Monteloup (Essonne); by decent to Ernest Louis Hyacinthe Arrigi de Casanova, duc de Padoue (died 1888); by descent to his great grandson comte Ernest de Caraman, Châeau de Courson (died 1958) [the later descent of “Justice” and “Mansuétude” is given by Mérot 1987, p. 247]. Sold Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 4, 1967, lot 81, to Comte de Gramont, as school of Eustache Le Sueur, “La Charité.” Heim Gallery, London by 1974; sold to the Art Institute, 1974.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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