Catherine Lusurier
Active in: France
Biography
Catherine Lusurier was born in Paris in 1752, the daughter of a dressmaker and a milliner. Her uncle, Hubert Drouais (1699–1767), was a portraitist and miniaturist and she apprenticed with him until his death in 1767. She likely worked alongside Drouais’ son, François-Hubert Drouais, (1727–1775) and grandson, Jean Germain Drouais (1763–1788). Twenty-one paintings have been attributed to her, an œuvre consisting primarily of portraits. She died in Paris in 1781 at the age of twenty-eight.
Selected Works
Catherine Lusurier, Portrait of Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, 1777. Oil on canvas, 100.2 x 81.2 cm. Musée Carnavalet
Catherine Lusurier, Portrait of a Man previously identified as Jean Le Rond d’Alembert, 1770. Oil on canvas, 45 x 38 cm. Musée Carnavalet
Catherine Lusurier, Portrait of Charlotte-Francoise DeBure, 1776. Oil on canvas, 74.93 x 60.96 cm. Milwaukee Art Museum
Circle
Niece and student of
Hubert Drouais (1699–1767)
Cousin of
François-Hubert Drouais (1727–1775)
First cousin once removed of
Jean Germaine Drouais (1763–1788)
Bibliography
Ashmore, Helen. “Catherine Lusurier (1752–81): A Woman Painter in Eighteenth-Century Paris.” Apollo 153 (2011): 34–40.
Auricchio, Laura, et al. eds. Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections. Washington, DC: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 2012.
Checklist of painters c1200–1976 Represented in the Witt Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London. London: Mansell, 1978.
Gabillot, C. “Les trois Drouais (1er article).” Gazette des beaux-arts 3rd series, 34, no. 579 (1905): 190.
Kahng, Eik, and Marianne Roland Michel. Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002.
Kayser, Christine, Xavier Salmon, and Laurent Hugues. L’Enfant chéri au siècle des lumières: Après l’Émile. Marly-le-Roi: Les éditions l’Inventaire, 2003.
Sainte-Beuve, M.-E. “Une portraitiste du XVIIIe siècle Catherine Lusurier.” Gazette des beaux-arts 15th series, 16, no. 779 (1927): 80–86.
Thieme, Ulrich and Felix Becker. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: Seemann, 1907–50.