SÉbastien, an eminent painter, born at Montpellier in 1616. He spent seven years in Italy, where he formed an acquaintance with Andrea Sacchi and Claude Lorraine, 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. His chef-d'œuvre is the Martyrdom of St Peter in the cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris. His talents as an engraver also were considerable. Bourdon was a Calvinist, and lived much respected, even in a Catholic country, his life and manners being unexceptionable. He died in 1671.