The Annunciation

Artist Eustache Le Sueur (French, 1616-1655)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1650

DimensionsH: 61 1/2 in. (156.2 cm); W: 49 1/2 in. (125.7 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1952.63

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 27

Label TextThe 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.Published ReferencesLe Comte, F., Cabinet des singularitez d'architecture, peinture..., 2nd ed., Brussels, 1702, III, p. 80 (as 1650).

Dezallier d'Argenville, A. J., Voyage pittoresque de Paris, 1752, p. 207.

Dezallier d'Argenville, A. J., Abrege de la vie des plus fameux peintres, Paris, 1762, IV, p. 116.

Dussieux, L., "Nouvelles recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Le Sueur," Archives de l'art francais, 1852-53, II, pp. 26, 58.

de Saint-Georges, G., Memoire historique des ouvrages de M. Eustache Le Sueur, 1690, included in L. Dussieux et al., Memoires inedits sur la vie et les ouvrages des membres de l'Academie Royale de peinture et de sculpture, Paris, 1854, I, p. 164.

Waagen, G. F., Galeries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1857, Supplement, p. 369.

Blanc, C., Le tresor de la Curiosite, Paris, 1857, II, p. 195.

Lejeune, T., Guide theorique et pratique de l'amateur de tableaux, Paris, 1864, p. 176.

Guiffrey, J. J., "Lettres et documents sur l'acquisition des tableaux d'Eustache Le Sueur pour la collection du Roi: 1776-89," Nouvelles archives de l'art francais, Paris, 1887, pp. 337, 338.

Rouches, G., Eustache Le Sueur, Paris, 1923, pp. 73-4.

Dimier, L., Histoire de la peinture francaise du retour de Vouet a la mort de Lebrun, 1627 a 1690, Paris, 1927, II, p. 6.

"French Paintings for a New Gallery in the Toledo Museum, Ohio," Illustrated London News, vol. 227, Aug. 13, 1955, p. 271, repr.

Charmet, Raymond, "L'Art français au Musée de Toledo," Arts, Spectacles, no. 556, Feb. 22, 1956, p. 14, repr.

Grigaut, Paul L., "Baroque and Rococo France in Toledo," Art Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1956, p. 50.

Isarlo, Georges, La Peinture en France au XVII Siècle, Paris, 1960, p. 45, repr. pl. 34, p. 181.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, New Series, vol. 3, no. 4, Autumn 1960, (also published as French Art 1600-1800) p. 78, repr.

Isarlo, George, La Peinture en France au XVII Siecle, La Bibliotheque des Arts, Paris, 1960, p. 45, repr. pl. 34, p. 181 (brief comment on p. 47).

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, New Series, vol. 4, no. 1, Winter, 1961, (also published as Details, European Paintings) repr. on cover in color.

Wittmann, Otto, "L'Art Francais au Musee de Toledo," Connaissance, no. 125, July 1962, Paris, pp. 40-47, repr. p. 44, appendix p. 111.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "What is Conservation," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, New Series, vol. 8, no. 3, Autumn 1965, pp. 51-67, repr. p. 54. 54 (also published as handbook).

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Religious and Biblical Themes in French Baroque Painting, Heim, London, 1974, in nos. 7-8.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo 1976, p. 97, pl. 189, color pl. VIII.

Vasseur, Dominique, "Mansuetude by Eustache Le Sueur," Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 71, no. 4, July-Aug. 1977, pp. 8, 10, repr. fig. 3.

Metken, Gunter, "Zuruck sum Ursprung," Weltkunst, vol. 52, no. 7, Apr. 1, 1982, repr. 924.

Mérot, Alain, "La renommée d'Eustache Le Sueur et l'estampe," Revue de l'art no. 55, 1982, pp. 57 and 64, no. 10.

Goldstein, Carl, "Seventeenth Century French Paintings," Art Journal, vol. 42, no. 4, winter, 1982, p. 331, repr. fig. 4.

Rosenberg, Pierre, "France in the Golden Age; a Postscript," Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 17, 1982, 1984, p. 31.

Schleier, Erich, "La Peinture Francaise du XVIIe Siecle dans les Collections Americaines," (review) Kunstchronik, vol. 36, no. 5, May 1983, p. 231.

Mérot, Alain, Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655), Paris, 1987, pp. 245, 246, fig. 316, repr. (col. det.) on cover.

Turley, Robert, Humanities: the Western Creative Heritage, a Student Handbook, Dubuque, 1991, pl. V.

One Hundred Saints, Boston, 1993, repr. p. 7 (col.).

Art Institute of Chicago, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1996, p. 97, fig. 2, no. 11.

Beckett, Wendy, The Mystery of Love: Saints in Art through the Ages, London, 1996, p. 20, repr. (col.) p. 21.

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen, Encyclopedia of Angels, New York, 1996, repr. p. 70.

Exhibition HistoryPittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, French Paintings, 1100-1900, 1951, no. 66, repr.

New Orleans, Isaac Delgado Museum, Masterpieces of French Painting through Five Centuries, 1400-1900, 1953, no. 20, p. 23.

Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.1965.

Paris, Galeries nationales d'exposition du Grand Palais, Paris, 1982 (Le petit Journal des grandes Expositions) p. 3, repr.

Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Chicago, The Art Institute, La Peinture francaise du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines, 1982, no. 53, pp. 272-73, 25, 357, repr. p. 156, 273.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Chicago Art Institute. France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth Century French Paintings in American Collections, 1982.

Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble, Eustache Le Sueur, 2000, no. 33, pp. 116, 133, repr. (col.).