# LE CLERC, Sébastien I [View the canonical artist record]() ## Artist - Lifespan: 1637–1714 - Profession: graphic artist - School: French ## Biography Sébastien Le Clerc I \(also Leclerc\), printmaker, draughtsman and military engineer, part of a French family of artists. Laurent Le Clerc \(1590-1695\) was a goldsmith from Metz. The most prominent members of the Leclerc family were his son Sébastien Leclerc I and Sébastien's son Sébastien Le Clerc II. Another son of Sébastien Le Clerc, Louis-Auguste Le Clerc \(1699-1771\), was a sculptor and pupil of Antoine Coysevox; from 1735 he worked in Denmark, becoming professor at the Kongelige Akademi for de Skonne Kunster in Copenhagen. His son and pupil Jacques-Sébastien Le Clerc \(1734-1785\) became a painter, producing small-scale amorous scenes; from 1778 he taught at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris. Sébastien Le Clerc I probably learnt the rudiments of drawing and engraving from his father, and also from Claude Bouchard, a copper-plate printer; however, he soon abandoned line engraving for etching. Le Clerc's earliest works that can be securely dated are from the years 1654-55. His first important series were the Life of St Benedict \(1658-59\) and Les Modes de Metz, later republished in Paris. Having also studied geometry, perspective and mathematics, Le Clerc became in 1660 a military engineer, working for Henri, Maréchal de La Ferté-Sénectere \(1600-80\), governor of Lorraine. ## Related artworks - [Funeral Service for Chancellor Séguier]() - [Siege of the Fortress of Douai, Flanders, by the French Army in 1667]() - [The Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()