For other people of this name, see LeClerc (surname)

LeClerc (surname)

Leclerc, Le Clerc, LeClerc and le Clerc are typical French or Francophone surnames which can refer to:* Bruno Leclerc , French-Canadian architect and banking executive;...

.

Sébastien Leclerc or Sébastien Le Clerc (baptised 26 September 1637, Metz

Metz

Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...

 - died 25 October 1714, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

) was a French artist active in drawing, painting and engraving. He also worked as a draughtsman and military engineer.

Life

Leclerc received his first instruction in art from his father, the goldsmith Laurent Leclerc (1590–1695), and also took an early keen interest in mathematics, geometry and perspective. His first artistic efforts were favourably received in his birthplace, where he engraved a city view in 1650, four screens in 1654 and a Life of St Benedict in 38 scenes in 1658.

Despite this welcome encouragement, Sébastien Leclerc could not resist his penchant for studying science, becoming engineer-geographer to marshal de la Ferté

Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre

Henri II de La Ferté-Senneterre was a marshal of France and governor of Lorraine.- Life :The son of Henri I de La Ferté-Senneterre, a minister from an old knightly family in the Auvergne, Henri II was destined for a military career and fought for the first time under Maurice of Nassau, leader of...

. During this time he executed several plans of several fortresses in the Metz area. However, one day he heard that the king had passed off one of his drawing's as another artist's work and, unable to bear this affront, quit his job. Still wishing to perfect his skills in military engineering despite this setback, he decided to move to Paris, where he could study the subject better and more easily. He arrived in the French capital around 1665 with letters of recommendation to the painter Charles Le Brun

Charles Le Brun

Charles Le Brun , a French painter and art theorist, became the all-powerful, peerless master of 17th-century French art.-Biography:-Early life and training:...

. Le Brun asked Leclerc to make some drawings for him and, on seeing these and Leclerc's engravings, he realised Leclerc's potential and advised him to abandon the sciences to devote himself solely to drawing and engraving - advice to which Leclerc listened.

As the protégé of such a major artist, Leclerc had no trouble gaining commissions,with booksellers were eager to have his engravings decorate their books. His reputation rose day by day and he was welcomed across the city. Soon even Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...

 wished to be known as a friend of Leclerc, putting him up at the Gobelins with a pension of 600 écus, on the express condition that he used his talents only in the king's service - a post Leclerc accepted. Colbert had designated one of his sons (later the marquis de Blainville) to replace him as surintendant des bâtiments, and so Leclerc gave this young man drawing lessons and instruction.

In 1672, chancellor Séguier

Pierre Séguier

-Early years:Born in Paris, France of a prominent legal family originating in Quercy. His grandfather, Pierre Séguier , was président à mortier in the parlement of Paris from 1554 to 1576, and the chancellor's father, Jean Séguier, a seigneur d'Autry, was civil lieutenant of Paris at the time of...

 died. Le Brun was chosen to design his catafalque and gave Leclerc the task of engraving his designs. He was so happy with Leclerc's work that he put both Leclerc and his work before the voters of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. They accepted him unanimously on 16 August 1672 and, in recognition of his previous studies, he was even made the Académie's professor of geometry and perspective - with these appointments the Académie gained a wise professor and Leclerc could consider his fortune made. At the Goeblins, however, Leclerc worked in straitened circumstances due to his pension (now at 1800 livres) and the condition he only work for the king. Seeing his family expanding (he had married in 1673) and his reputation rising, he abandoned his pension and regained his artistic freedom. From this time onwards, he worked on a considerable number of engravings, with there being no important book without an image by him - vignettes and the page headers of all funeral orations were all drawn and engraved by Leclerc, whilst religious books and novels teemed with his engravings.

In 1684 Leclerc engraved a plate notable in art history. Whilst Le Brun headed the Gobelins factory, there was a custom of putting up a maypole in his honour every May. Leclerc engraved this ceremony, in which he showed the moment at which the tall tree was dress with emblems flattering Le Brun - below, he showed the festivities accompanying this occasion. In 1710 Leclerc feared losing his sight and was for a while forced to give up his work, though he soon returned to it, if only for a few years. He died whilst putting the finishing touches to his Traité d’architecture.

Analysis

For his spirit and talent at composition, Leclerc is accounted among the best French artists of the 17th century, with incomparable fertility of invention. His catalogue was edited by Th.-Ant. Joubert and contains 3412 pieces, nearly all his own composition. With remarkable intelligence, a delicacy in engraving the smallest drawings, a certain grandeur in his treatment of the most grand and lavish subjects, he has sometimes been criticised for some monotony and for his inequalities in plates destined for the same book, though such a wide output made some repetition inevitable. Leclerc is thus held as one of the most able French engravers, alongside Callot

Jacques Callot

Jacques Callot was a baroque printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine . He is an important figure in the development of the old master print...

, Abraham Bosse

Abraham Bosse

Abraham Bosse was a French artist, mainly as a printmaker in etching, but also in watercolour.-Life:...

 and Brebiette

Pierre Brébiette

Pierre Brébiette was a French painter, who produced several drawings but has left only one signed and identified work. That work, an oil on canvas entitled The Rape of Proserpina by Pluto, is now in the Picot collection within the collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de...

.

Print collectors have always wished to gain a full collection of Leclerc's images, but even during his lifetime some of his images eluded them. Potier, a famous collector who died around 1757 and a friend of Leclerc's, began a prints collection quite late in life and his fellow art collectors criticised his taste for that sphere - they smiled whenever he offered to show them his print collection and, to avoid hurting his feelings, stated they were unworthy of such an honour. Understanding the situation and slightly hurt at their disdain, Potier resolved to bring some of his fellow collectors to his house to have his revenge. He invited Leclerc to engrave a print on a subject of his own choice for the occasion and a few days later Leclerc delivered a small image of Venus rising from the waves

Venus Anadyomene

Venus Anadyomene was one of the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in Pliny's Natural History, with the anecdote that the great Apelles employed Campaspe, a mistress of Alexander the Great, for his model...

. Potier paid for the print, took the proofs of the image Leclerc had drawn for him off the market and then invited the collectors to come see his collection. When they came, Potier showed them a small print he said he had acquired by chance, but each collector cried "But it's by Sébastien Leclerc! I haven't got it in my collection, it's totally unknown to me." They then left Potier and ran to Leclerc, where they found not a single proof and were unable to find it in circulation. Thus they returned to Potier and, in searching through his collections for the proofs, finally looked properly at them, praised them and no longer disdained them.

Marriage and issue

In 1673 Leclerc married one of the daughters of a royal dyer named Vandenkerchoven. Leclerc and his wife had six sons and four daughters but only one of these, Sébastien the younger, gained any reputation in painting, before dying in 1757 (Sébastien the younger's art collection was sold in 1764, putting many drawings and prints Sébastien the younger had inherited from his father onto the art market).

Sources

• Édouard Charton, Le Magasin pittoresque, 1777 à 1786, Aux Bureaux d’Abonnement et de Vente, 1858, p. 236-8.

Works

• Pratique de la Géométrie sur le papier et sur le terrain, Paris, Thomas Jolly, 1669
• Nouveau système du monde conforme à l’écriture sainte, Paris, Giffard, 1706
• Système de la vision fondé sur de nouveaux principes, Paris, Florentin Delaulne, 1712
• Traité d'architecture avec des remarques et des observations très utiles pour les jeunes gens, qui veulent s'appliquer à ce bel art, Paris, Giffard, 1714

External links

• http://bm.mairie-metz.fr/ The Library of Metz owns an important engraving collection of the artist which can be scanned on demand.