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The Annunciation

The Annunciation

Artist: Eustache Le Sueur (French, 1616-1655)
Date: 1650
Dimensions:
H: 61 1/2 in. (156.2 cm); W: 49 1/2 in. (125.7 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1952.63
Label Text:The Virgin Mary is a model of pious humility in this graceful image of her receiving the news from the Angel Gabriel that she will give birth to Jesus, the Son of God. Gabriel has interrupted her as she kneels at a prie-dieu (prayer desk), the pages of her open prayer book fluttering in the breeze of the archangel’s sudden appearance.

Gabriel proffers a lily, symbol of purity, which is strategically placed right at the opening of the curtain that otherwise conceals Mary’s bed—a visual clue, along with Gabriel’s pointing hand and the light streaming from the heavens, that Mary’s pregnancy will occur through divine rather than earthly means.

Using fresh, luminous colors—saffron, salmon-pink, violet, sky blue—Eustache Le Sueur painted this canvas as an altarpiece for the chapel in the hôtel (city house) of Guillaume Brissonnet (or Briçonnet), a magistrate in Paris.

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In Collection(s)