Eustache Le Sueur, 'Alexander and his Doctor', about 1647.
London, The National Gallery.

Recent Acquisition

'Alexander and his Doctor'

about 1647

Eustache Le Sueur
(1616 - 1655)

NG6576

The Gallery has recently bought 'Alexander and his Doctor' by Eustache Le Sueur.

The story of Alexander the Great and his doctor, Philip, is told by many ancient authors including Plutarch in his 'Parallel Lives'.

Plutarch relates how, after Alexander fell ill, one of his generals wrote him a letter warning that Philip, Alexander's doctor and old friend, was planning to poison him. Alexander nevertheless trusted Philip and fearlessly drank the medicine which the latter had prepared. Le Sueur shows Alexander drinking as Philip indignantly reads the accusatory letter.

This example of the value of friendship was particularly appreciated by French critics during the 17th and 18th centuries both for its moral and for its artistic qualities: the picture's rigorous composition echoes the seriousness of the subject, the character's gestures are shown with the clarity that narrative painting of the day required, yet the painting's colour harmonies are unashamedly appealing.

The picture was painted around 1649 for Jérôme de Nouveau's house in the Place Royale (now the Place des Vosges) in Paris. De Nouveau was Superintendent-General of Posts, so a painting showing an episode in which a letter was central may have had particular appeal.

During most of the 18th century the picture was in the celebrated Orléans collection. When this came onto the market in London at the end of the century the Le Sueur was bought by Lady Amabel Lucas who hung it in her house in St James's Square. Thought to have been sold by her descendants some 100 years later, the picture in fact remained in the house all along, unrecognised until its rediscovery by Alastair Laing, Adviser on Pictures and Sculpture to the National Trust, who brought it to the Gallery's attention.

Le Sueur's 'Alexander and his Doctor' is an important addition to the Gallery's collection. It shows the artist at his best and stands for the kind of serious history painting which was so important in 17th-century France - the Parisian response to the contemporary achievements of Poussin in Rome.

Humphrey Wine, Curator of French 17th- and 18th-century Paintings

Alastair Laing adds:
The acquisition by the National Gallery of this picture, which has been virtually under its (and everyone's) nose in No. 4 St James's Square, for twenty years the headquarters and exhibition rooms of the Arts Council, is profoundly gratifying, because it adds an indisputable and important painting by this artist to the National Gallery's already strong holdings of French 17th-century painting.

The picture was apparently painted to serve as an overmantel. The subject may have had an extra resonance for its next recorded owner, the future Regent and great collector, Louis XIV's nephew, Philippe, duc d'Orléans (1674-1723): Alexander the Great's father and his doctor were also called Philip.

Bought by Baroness Lucas and Dowager Viscountess Polwarth, later created Countess de Grey in her own right, it was hung at eye level in the Great Room of her maternal mansion in St James's Square. Her nephew Thomas Philip, 2nd Earl de Grey, founder-President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 'skyed' the painting, insetting it and a 'Continence of Scipio' by Amigoni as overdoors in his Louis Quatorze Revival transformation of that room, now the dining-room of the Naval and Military Club. The Le Sueur has mercifully now taken a more dignified place, in Room 18 of the National Gallery.

Oil on canvas, 96 x 96 cm.

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