Paris, Lebrun, through the active interest of his patron Seguier, obtained an introduction to the court, and opportunities for the display of his talents. He soon acquired a high reputation, was appointed painter to the king; and by his energy, backed by the influence of Seguier, obtained the support of the all-powerful minister Colbert, and the sanction of the king for the establishment of the Royal Academy of Art, of which he was placed first in the list of members, and was the real head. It was one of the privileges of the new academy that the directorship of the Gobelin tapestry works should only be held by one of its members, and Lebrun was appointed to the coveted post. He became a great favourite of the king, Louis XIV., who conferred on him the order of St. Michael, and letters of nobility; and employed him largely in adorning Fontainebleau, and the grand gallery of Versailles. During the progress of the works, the king often paid long visits to the painter, a circumstance that recalled to the courtiers the visits of the Emperor Charles V. to the painting-room of Titian. Lebrun was gifted with a lively imagination, and was master of a grandiose academic style of design well suited to the court and times for which he worked. He drew well, composed with facility, had a good eye for splendour of effect, an easy and rapid execution, and was long regarded as the great model and authority in expression; his "Traité sur la Physiognomie," and "Sur le Caractère des Passions," being the chief authority in academies and with teachers. But it is now admitted even in his own country, where he is still regarded with traditional reverence, that his style was eminently artificial, his colour harsh and untrue, and his expression affected and exaggerated. His best works, and those in which his excellencies and defects are most fairly exhibited, are his "Battles of Alexander," so well known by the splendid engravings, in thirteen large sheets, of Gerard Audran. Lebrun died at Paris, February 12th, 1690. Most of his principal works have been engraved, and he himself etched a few plates.—J. T—e.
LE BRUN, Charles François, Duke of Placentia, a French statesman, born 19th of March, 1739; died 16th of June, 1824. He studied law, and afterwards was secretary to the minister Maupeou. At the Revolution he sat in the states-general, and also in the council of Five Hundred. Napoleon chose him as the third consul, and he was afterwards governor of Liguria, and administrator-general of Holland. He was faithful to the emperor, but on the restoration of the Bourbons did not retire from the service of his country, and became grandmaster of the university.—P. E. D.
LE CAT, Claude Nicolas, a distinguished physician and surgeon, was born at Blerancourt, between Nogon and Coucy, in 1700. He studied at Paris and took out his degree at Rheims. In 1733, having previously obtained the reversion of the post of surgeon-major to the hospital of Rouen, he settled in that city, and immediately began to give a course of anatomical lectures. It was here he first established the high reputation he ever afterwards enjoyed for his dexterous method of operating for the stone. In 1736 he established at Rouen a public school of surgery and anatomy, built an ample theatre at his own expense, and gave lectures for ten or twelve years gratis, receiving at the end of that time a royal pension. In 1739 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Surgery at Rouen, and about this time had very liberal offers made to him to remove to Paris. These, however, he declined, preferring to remain at Rouen. In 1755 Le Cat attended a general meeting of lithotomists to consider the superiority of his method of operating for the stone, and the decision was in his favour. He died at Rouen in 1768, and was interred in the church of Hotel Dieu. He was the author of several works.—W. B—d.
LECCHI, Giovanni Antonio, an Italian mathematician and hydraulic engineer, was born at Milan on the 17th of November, 1702, and died there on the 24th of August, 1776. He entered the order of jesuits, and taught various sciences in their colleges for a time. In 1739 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the university of Pavia, and held that appointment till 1759, when his celebrity induced the Empress Maria Theresa to invite him to Vienna, and create him court-mathematician. He returned to Italy on the invitation of the pope, Clement XIII., to become chief-director of the hydraulic works on the rivers of the pontifical states; which office he held for the remainder of his life. He wrote various treatises of high authority on hydraulics, and edited an edition of Newton's Arithmetica Universalis.—W. J. M. R.
LECÈNE, Charles, an industrious and learned French protestant writer, was born at Caen in or about 1647, and died in London in 1703. Lecène studied at Sedan, then at Geneva, and finally at Saumur. In 1672 he was ordained to the ministry at Caen, and appointed pastor at Honfleur, which he left for Charenton in 1682. There his reception was opposed on the ground of heterodoxy, and, before the affair was decided, Louis XIV, revoked the edict of Nantes, and Lecène went to Holland where he declared himself an Arminian. Some time after he visited England, where he might have entered the ministry under the patronage of his friend Allix, but he objected to reordination. He was moreover suspected of Socinianism; he therefore returned to Holland, but afterwards came again to England, where he spent the rest of his days. He was well informed, and had quick natural faculties; but he was somewhat rash and eccentric in his speculations, and unsound in his theological opinions. In 1684 he wrote a work to show that man has the natural power to repent, to become virtuous, and to save himself. In 1685 he published a book on conversion, free-will, and original sin, in connection with an essay on predestination by Le Clerc. For a number of years he laboured upon a new version of the Bible, of which he published his "projet" in 1696, but which did not appear till 1741, and is justly charged with culpable inaccuracy and gross misrepresentation: it is perhaps one of the most remarkable perversions of the sacred text that has ever been made public. The pastors of the Walloon church condemned this version in a synod at La Brille in 1742, and sought but did not obtain its suppression by the civil magistrate.—B. H. C.
LECHEVALIER, Jean Baptiste, a well-known French antiquarian and traveller, born in 1752; died in 1836. He studied at Paris; but although called abbé did not take orders. For some years he was a professor in various colleges, and in 1784 accompanied the French ambassador to Constantinople as his private secretary. While there he was diligent in antiquarian pursuits. After a time he was sent to Jassy. On returning to France the Revolution led him to visit other countries, and for many years he did little but travel. During the last thirty years of his life he was keeper of the St. Genéviève library in Paris, His work on Troy has been much read; but, like his other writings, it is too conjectural.—B. H. C.
LE CLERC, Daniel, physician, born at Geneva in 1652. He studied in France, and upon his return to his native country engaged in practice. He held the office of councillor of state for twenty-four years. He died in 1728. His "History of Medicine" is a work of great research.—W. B—d.
LECLERC, David, professor of Hebrew at Geneva, was born there in 1591, and died there in 1654. He obtained the professorship in 1618, but received no remuneration for discharging the duties. His chief work is "Quæstiones Sacræ."—D. W. R.
LE CLERC, Jean Baptiste, a French revolutionist, poet, and author, was born at Angers, 29th February, 1756; died at Chalonnes, 16th November, 1826. Although more of a scholar than politician, he was a member of the constituent assembly, and always voted with the majority. In 1795 he was a member of the council of Five Hundred. In 1797 he moved a resolution in favour of a national worship based on the principles of natural religion. The project, however, was unsuccessful. He was called to the presidency in 1799, but retired from public life in 1802. Music was his favourite study; and he had not only a prominent part in establishing the Conservatory of Music, but wrote a history of the art.—P. E. D.
LE CLERC, Victor Emmanuel, a French general, was born in 1772. He entered the army as a volunteer in 1791, was made a captain at the siege of Toulon in 1793, and on the surrender of that place was promoted to the command of a battalion. He served successively in the army of the Alps and in that of Italy under Bonaparte, and was appointed by him sub-chief of his staff. In 1797 he was made general of brigade, and married Pauline, one of Napoleon's sisters. He afterwards became chief of the staff to General Berthier; accompanied Bonaparte into Egypt; and after his return was made by him general of division, and appointed to the command of the army of the Rhine. He was intrusted with the chief command of the expedition despatched to St. Domingo in 1801; but a few weeks after reaching Cape Français he was seized with yellow fever, and died in November, 1802. His widow afterwards married the Prince Borghese.—J. T.
