Eustache Le Sueur (Paris 1616 - 1655) and Studio

Probably A. Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur, 1616-1655, Paris 1987, p. 167, no. 10 (as lost and known from a tapestry).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored. The canvas has been freshly lined and the paint layer cleaned, varnished and retouched. This is a very heavy paint layer and the lining has suppressed cracking which was most likely quite raised in the past. Throughout the picture no significant retouches have been added in the figures, it is only the sky and the arbor in the upper left quadrant that have received retouches. There is a large damage running through the archway in the sky and another also in the sky at the top of the archway. The left edge is fairly consistently retouched, including the toes of the foot of the kneeling man and almost two inches of this side of the picture. The right edge however only shows frame abrasions, as do the top and the bottom. The overall impression, despite the fact that there appear to be no significant retouches, is that the paint layer has received some abrasion during successive cleanings. However, the painting remains welldefined and lively nonetheless.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This painting depicts an episode from Francesco Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ("Strife of Love in a Dream of Polyphilus"), a Renaissance romance in which the central character, Polyphilus, pursues his love, Polia, through a dreamlike landscape.  First published in Venice in 1499, Colonna's book enjoyed immense popularity in 17^th century France largely due to a French translation by François Béroalde de Verville, first published in 1600 and reprinted in 1657.

Le Sueur produced a series of eight paintings based on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili that were cartoons for tapestries.¹  The series, Le Songe de Polyphile, was the artist's first large undertaking and was painted over a number of years, circa 1636-1644.  The scene depicted in the present painting is from the last chapter of Book I of the romance (translation of Béroalde de Verville, p. 127) in which  Polyphilus, after many adventures, has been reunited with Polia.  Having arrived on the island of Cythera, they rest by a fountain while Polia braids a crown of flowers for her beloved and begins to recount his story to the attendant nymphs.

We are grateful to Alain Mérot who has seen this painting firsthand and has confirmed it to be a work by Eustache Le Sueur with studio assistance.

1.  Five other paintings from the series are known:  Marine Gods Paying Homage to Love (Polyphilus and Polia being Ferried to Cythera), Malibu, The Getty Museum; Polyphilus Participating in the Triumph of Bacchus, Le Mans, Musée de Tessé; Polyphilus Bathing with Nymphs of Queen Eleuterylida, Dijon, Musée Magnin;  Polyphilus Kneeling Before Queen Eleuterylida, Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts;  Polyphilus Received by Philtronia at the Three Doors, Salzburg, Residenzgalerie.