Eustache Le SUEUR (Paris, 1616- Ibidem, 1655) - Lot 86

Eustache Le SUEUR (Paris, 1616- Ibidem, 1655) Study for a man carrying books Black stone and white highlights on brown prepared paper 270 x 203 mm Provenance: Berlin, Heinz Grunert, (1885(?)-1967) his mark on verso Lugt; 3885 Berlin & Munich, Bernard Funck (1895-1993), his collection mark in blue Lugt 3835 on verso; France, private collection. Our drawing may well be one of the first ideas for one of the figures destined for the important composition of Saint Paul à Ephèse, whose painting is preserved in the Louvre and should be dated between 1645 and 1650. It can be compared with a sheet preserved in the Louvre (Alain Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur, Arthéna, 2000, p.218, no. 65, fig. 219) at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, which features a similar medium of white wash over a light black stone sketch. Mounted and framed in natural patinated wood