ed in the studio of Simon Vouet,
was already being renewed between the two artists; the angelic art gave
place to the worldly and the earthly. Lesueur died; Lebrun found himself
master of the position, assured by anticipation, and as it were by
instinct, of sovereign, dominion under the sway of the young king for
whom he had been created.

[Illustration: Lesueur----676]

Old Philip of Champagne alone might have disputed with him the foremost
rank. He had passionately admired Le Poussin, he had attached himself to
Lesueur. "Never," says M. Vitet, "had he sacrificed to fashion; never
had he fallen into the vagaries of the degenerate Italian style." This
upright, simple, painstaking soul, this inflexible conscience, looking
continually into the human face, had preserved in his admirable portraits
the life and the expression of nature which he was incessantly trying to
seize and reproduce. Lebrun was preferred to him as first painter to the
king by Louis XIV. himself; Philip of Champagne was delighted thereat; he
lived, in retirement, in fidelity to his friends of Port-Royal, whose
austere and vigorous lineaments he loved to trace, beginning with M. de
St. Cyran, and ending with his own daughter, Sister Suzanne, who was
restored to health by the prayers of Mother Agnes Arnauld.

[Illustration: Mignard 677]

Lebrun was as able a courtier as he was a good painter. The clever
arrangement of his pictures, the richness and brilliancy of his talent,
his faculty for applying art to industry, secured him with Louis XIV. a
sway which lasted as long as his life. He was first painter to the king;
he was director of the Gobelins and of the academy of painting. "He let
nothing be done by the other artists but according to his own designs and
suggestions. The worker in tapestry, the decorative painter, the
statuary, the goldsmith, took their models from him: all came from him,
all flowed from his brain, all bore his imprint." The painter followed
the king's ideas, being entirely after his own heart. For fourteen years
he worked for Louis XIV., representing his life and his conquests, at
Versailles; painting for the Louvre the victories of Alexander, which
were engraved almost immediately by Audran and Edelinck. He was jealous
of the royal favor, sensitive and haughty towards artists, honestly
concerned for the king's glory and for the tasks confided to himself.
The growing reputation of Mignard, whom Louvois had brought