LE SUEUR, Eustache
(b. 1616/17, Paris, d. 1655, Paris)

The Muses: Melpomene, Erato and Polyhymnia

1652-55
Oil on canvas, 130 x 130 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Le Sueur was the pupil of Vouet. This painting and its companion piece depicting Clio, Euterpe and Thalia were used to decorate the Cabinet of the Muses of the Hôtel Lambert in Paris. These charming, delicately painted pictures foreshadow the coming of Poussin.