The Martyrdom of St Lawrence

Eustache Le Sueur (1616 - 65)

Oil on canvas, 168 x 97.5 cm

The masterpiece of 1645-48, comparable to the Miracle of St Martincommissioned from Le Sueur in 1654 for the Benedictine Eglise de StMartin, Marmontiers, near Tours, was one of his most celebrated worksuntil it disappeared from France at the end of the eighteenthcentury. It continued to be known through an engraving by MadameSoyer and by a copy which replaced it. That was seized at theRevolution, subsequently taken for the original by Francois Villot(cat. 1855, no.522), and since 1897 placed in the Musée deQuimper. A drawing for the saint is in the Albertina, Vienna.

PROVENANCE painted for a chapel of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois; soldthence to the Comte de Ponchar-train; Pasquier sale, 10 March 1755(16); De Lalive de Jully sale, 5 March 1770 (38); presumably acquiredthen or soon after for George Brudenell, 4th earl of Cardigan,created Duke of Montagu; thence by descent.

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