Charles le, was descended of a family of distinction in Scotland, and born in the year 1619. His father was a statuary by profession. He discovered, it is said, such an early inclination for painting, that at three years of age he used to take coals, and design on the hearths and sides of the chimney, only by the light of the fire; and at twelve he drew the picture of his uncle so well that it still passes for a fine piece. His father being employed in the gardens at Sequier, and having brought his son along with him, the chancellor of that name took a liking to him, and placed him with Simon Vouet, an eminent painter. He was afterwards sent to Fontainebleau to copy some of Raphael's pieces. The chancellor sent him next to Italy, and supported him there for six years. Le Brun, in his return, met with the celebrated Poussin, by whose conversation he greatly improved himself in his art, and contracted a friendship with him which terminated only with their lives. A painting of St Stephen, which he finished in 1651, raised his reputation to the highest pitch. Soon after this, the king, upon the representation of M. Colbert, made him his first painter, and conferred on him the order of St Michael. His majesty employed two hours every day to see him work while he was painting the family of Darius at Fontainebleau. About the year 1662 he began his five large pieces of the history of Alexander the Great, in which he is said to have set the actions of that famous conqueror in a more glorious light than Quintus Curtius has done in his history. He procured several advantages for the royal academy of painting and sculpture at Paris, and formed the plan of another for the students of his own nation at Rome. There was scarcely any thing done for the advancement of the fine arts in which he was not consulted. It was through the interest of M. Colbert that the king gave him the direction of all his works, particularly of his royal manufactory at the Gobelins, where he had a handsome house with a genteel salary assigned to him. He was also made director and chancellor of the royal academy, and showed the greatest desire to encourage the fine arts in France. He was endowed with a vast inventive genius, which extended itself to arts of every kind; and he was well acquainted with the manners and history of all nations. Besides his extraordinary talents, his manners were so polished, and his address so pleasing, that he attracted the regard and affection of the whole court of France, where, by the places and pensions conferred on him by the king's liberality, he made a very considerable figure. Le Brun was the author of two treatises, one on physiognomy, and the other on the different characters of the passions. He died at Paris in 1690.