Sebastian, a painter, born at Montpelier in 1616. He studied seven years at Rome, and acquired so great a reputation, that, on his return to France, he was appointed rector of the academy of painting in Paris, being the first who held that office. He succeeded better in landscapes than in history. His pieces are seldom finished, and those which received his last touches are not always the finest. The most esteemed of all his performances is the martyrdom of St Peter, drawn for the church of Notre Dame, and kept as one of the choicest rarities of that cathedral. Bourdon was a Calvinist, and much valued and respected, even in a Catholic country, because his life and manners were unexceptionable. He died in 1673, aged fifty-four.