CLERC, Sebastian le, engraver, and designer in ordinary to the French king, was born at Metz in 1637. After having learnt designing, he applied himself to mathematics, and was engineer to the marshal de la Ferté. He went to Paris in 1665, where he applied himself to designing and engraving with such success, that M. Colbert gave him a pension of 600 crowns. In 1672 he was admitted into the royal academy of painting and sculpture; and in 1680 was made professor of geometry and perspective in the same academy. He published, besides a great number of designs and prints, 1. A Treatise on theoretical and practical Geometry. 2. A Treatise on Architecture; and other works: and died in 1714.—He was an excellent artist, but chiefly in the petit style. His genius seldom exceeds the dimensions of six inches. Within those limits he could draw up 20,000 men with great dexterity. No artist except Callot and Della Bella could touch a small figure with so much spirit. His most esteemed prints are: 1. The passion of our Saviour, on 36 small plates, lengthwise, from his own compositions. The best impressions are without the borders. 2. The miracle of the feeding five thousand, a middling-sized plate, lengthwise. In the first impressions, which are very rare, a town appears in the back-ground; in place of which a mountain is substituted in the common ones. 3. The elevation of the large flower used in building the front of the Louvre, a large plate, lengthwise. The first impressions are without the date 1677, which was afterwards added. 4. The academy of the sciences, a middling-sized plate, lengthwise. The first impressions are before the skeleton of the flag and tortoise were added. The second impressions are before the shadow was enlarged at the bottom, towards the right-hand side of the print. Both these impressions are very scarce. The first is rarely met with. This print was copied for Chambers's Dictionary. 5. The May of the Gobelins, a middle-sized plate, lengthwise. The first impression is before the woman was introduced, who covers the wheel of the coach. 6. The four conquests, large plates, lengthwise, representing the taking of Tourmay, the taking of Donay, the defeat of the comte de Marcin, and the Switzerland alliance. 7. The battles of Alexander, from Le Brun, six small long plates, including the title, which represents the picture gallery at the Gobelins. The first impressions of the cent of Darius, which plate makes part of this set, is distinguished by the shoulder of the woman, who is seated in the front, being without the shadow, which was afterwards added; for which reason they are called the prints with the naked shoulder. 8. The entry of Alexander into Babylon, a middling-sized plate, lengthwise. In the first impressions, the face of Alexander is seen in profile; in the second, it is a three-quarter face, and therefore called the print with the head turned.