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In his later years Le Sueur's style was profoundly affected by the study of Poussin's compositions of the 1640s. The works in which this influence appears most clearly are those illustrating the life of St Bruno, painted for the Charterhouse of Paris, about 1648, and now in the Louvre. From Poussin Le Sueur learnt a new interest in the psychological aspect of his subjects and also a new classicism of composition and modeling. But here there is a reflective religious atmosphere, which is not to be found in Poussin.
The life of St Bruno
St Bruno the Carthusian, also called St Bruno of Cologne, was born c. 1030 in Cologne and died 1101 in the La Torre monastery, Calabria. Founder of the Carthusian order he was noted for his learning and for his sanctity. He was canonized in 1514.
Ordained at Cologne, in 1057 Bruno was called to Reims by Archbishop Gervase to become head of the cathedral school and overseer of the schools of the diocese. Among his pupils was Eudes de Châtillon, later Pope Urban II. Bruno was made chancellor of the church of Reims in 1075. Having protested against the misdoings of the new archbishop Manasses de Gournai, he was deprived of all his offices and fled to safety (1076). On the deposition of the Archbishop (1080), Bruno was presented to the pope by the ecclesiastical authorities for the see, but he refused, for he had already determined to forsake the world. With six companions, he was led to a place called Chartreuse in the mountains near Grenoble by St Hugh of Châteauneuf, bishop of Grenoble. There the seven retired, building a monastery and founding the Carthusian order (1084).
Bruno did not write a rule for the order, but the customs he established, modifying the Benedictine Rule, became the basis for the new foundations. After six years Pope Urban II called Bruno to Rome and offered him the archbishopric of Reggio, Italy, which he refused. He then retired to Calabria where he established his second colony of hermits at La Torre.
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