This graceful, newly discovered painting relates to a smaller, now lost panel painting by Le Sueur that was engraved in reverse by Pierre Daret in 1643 (fig. 1). The lost painting was in the collection of the Duc de Saint-Aignan and sold in Paris, 17 June 1776, lot 31 (`Le Sueur. La Vierge et l’Enfant Jésus. Ce tableau, quoique du temps de Vouet, mérite attention'). A tiny marginal illustration by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in the Saint-Aignan sale catalogue illustrates the painting, which measured 10 x 7 pouces (27 x 18.9 cm.).
The present painting is of larger scale, on canvas, and crops the image somewhat from the small panel engraved by Daret. It is clearly a very early work, perhaps from the mid-1630s, shortly after he joined Simon Vouet’s studio. It is consciously made in the style of the many sensitive renderings of the Madonna and Child by his teacher, but with an elegance and grace, a freshness of tone and clear color, that is all his own. Le Sueur never traveled outside France and worked in Vouet’s shop for a decade – from roughly 1633 to 1643/4. Early works, such as the present canvas, show such a dependence on the manner of his master that, until recently, many of them carried an attribution to Vouet. In recent years, a clearer picture of Le Sueur’s style has emerged, allowing us to recognize the fine drawing, extreme refinement of palette and suave handling that distinguish his works from his those of his master.