CLERC, Sebastian le, engraver and designer in ordinary to the French king, was born at Metz in 1637. After having learned designing, he applied himself to mathematics, and became 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 he was made professor of geometry and perspective in the same academy. Besides a great number of designs and prints, he published, 1. A Treatise on Theoretical and Practical Geometry; 2. A Treatise on Architecture; and other works. He died in 1714. Le Clerc was an excellent artist, but chiefly in the petty style. His genius seldom exceeds the dimensions of six inches. Within these limits he could draw up 20,000 men with great dexterity. No
Clergy. 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 of which are without the borders; 2. The miracle of the feeding of five thousand; a middling-sized plate, lengthwise; 3. The elevation of the large stones used in building the front of the Louvre; a large plate, lengthwise; 4. The academy of the sciences, a middling-sized plate, lengthwise; the first impressions are before the skeleton of the stag and tortoise were added; 5. The May of the Gobelins, a middle-sized plate, lengthwise; the first impression of which is before the woman was introduced, who covers the wheel of the coach; 6. The four conquests, large plates, lengthwise, representing the taking of Tournay, the taking of Douay, the defeat of the Comte de Marsin, 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; and, 8. The entry of Alexander into Babylon, a middle-sized plate, lengthwise, in the first impressions of which, the face of Alexander is seen in profile; but in the second, it is a three-quarter face, and therefore called the print with the head turned.