Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/737

at the head of which he marched against the Nat- chez, defeated them, and released over 200 French and negro captives. He was placed in command of a small vessel and ordered to push on to Red river, 21 Dec, which he was to ascend, in order to ascertain where the main body of the Natchez In- dians was stationed. Having learned its position, he returned, and, on the surrender of the savages. he was one of three officers to whom the custody of their chiefs was intrusted. Knowing their lan- guage thoroughly, he learned from them that other bodies of Natchez and kindred tribes were prepar- ing to attack the French. He laid this informa- tion before the general and guaranteed that if he were allowed a picked company he would overcome the savages. This offer was refused. He appears to have gone to France some time afterward, and to have died at sea when returning to Canada.

LETCHER, John, governor of Virginia, b. in Lexington, Va., 29 March, 1813 ; d. there. 26 Jan., 1884. He was graduated at Randolph Macon in 1833, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1839, and while practising edited a newspaper in Lexington, Va. He was a member of the State constitu- tional convention in 1850, and in 1852 was elected to congress as a Democrat, serv- ing till 1859. At the latter date he be- came governor of Virginia, and was in office when the con- vention passed the ordinance of seces- sion in 1801. Al- though he had op- posed this policy, he

sustained the action

of the convention, and immediately placed all the state's forces at the disposition of the Confederate government, without waiting for the popular vote. After the failure of the Confederacy he resumed his profession, and retired from politics.

LETCHER, Robert Perkins, statesman, b. in Goochland county, Va., 10 Feb., 1788 ; d. in Frank- fort, Ky., 24 Jan., 1861. He was educated in the common schools, removed to and began the practice of law in Lancaster county, Ky. He was frequently a member of the legislature, at one time speaker of the house, and in 1822 was elected to congress as a Clay Democrat, serving one term. Mr. Letcher's seat was contested by Thomas P. Moore, but the house, after prolonged discussion, gave the seat to Mr. Letcher. He was a presidential elector in 183(5 on the Harrison and Granger ticket, was governor of Kentucky in 1840-'4, and in 1849 was appointed minister to Mexico, serving till 1852.

LETHIERE, Gnillauine Guillon (leh-te-air), West Indian artist, b. in Guadeloupe, 16 Jan.. 1760; d. in Paris, 22 April, 1832. He acquired the elements of design in his own country, and, showing great capacity, was sent by his father to France in 1774, where he pursued his artistic studies during three years under the direction of Deschamps, professor at the Academy of Rouen. Then he went to Paris, where he was befriended by Doyen, the king's painter, and remained until 1786, when one of his pictures gave him the first prize and an opportunity to go to Rome. Here he painted his "Junius Brutus," which obtained a prize and may be considered his masterpiece. He returned to Paris in 1792, in 1811 was appointed director of the Academy of Rouen, and in 1815 member of the Academy of arts. He founded at Paris in 1819 a school of painting, and travelled often through England, Spain, and Italy, to study the customs and habits of those countries for re- production in his works. Among his pictures in the Museum of painting of Paris the most notable are "Junius Brutus ordering the Execution of his Son" (1791); "The Treaty of Leoben" (1806); "View of the Town of Medicis" (1807); "Palace of the French Academy at Rome " (1807) ; " ^Eneas and Dido surprised bv a Storm" (1819); and "Ve- nus on the Waves" (1819).

LEUTZE, Emanuel, historical painter, b. in Gmünd, Würtemberg, 24 May, 1816; d. in Washington, D. C., 18 July, 1868. His parents emigrated to the United States soon after his birth, and at first settled in Philadelphia, but subsequently removed to Fredericksburg, Va. His early education was good, though not especially in the direction of art. The first development of his artistic talent occurred while he was attending the sick-bed of his father, when he attempted drawing to occupy the long hours of waiting. He soon became skilful, and projected a plan for publishing, in Washington, portraits of eminent American statesmen, in which, however, he met with but slight encouragement. About 1840 he produced a painting whose merits were such as to procure him many orders, so that in 1841 he was enabled to study in Düsseldorf under Lessing. He devoted himself to historical subjects, choosing in preference those having a relation to the discovery or history of America. His first noteworthy painting in Europe, “Columbus before the Council of Salamanca,” was purchased by the Düsseldorf art union; and a companion picture, “Columbus in Chains,” procured him the gold medal of the Brussels art exhibition, and was subsequently purchased by the Art union in New York. In 1843 he studied the works of Cornelius and Kaulbach at Munich, and, while there, finished his “Columbus before the Queen.” On the completion of this picture he visited Venice and Rome, making studies from Titian and Michael Angelo, and, after a tour in Italy, returned to Düsseldorf in 1845, where he married and made his home. For fourteen years he continued in that city, during which period he painted “Landing of the Norsemen in America,” “Cromwell and his Daughter,” “The Court of Queen Elizabeth,” “Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn,” “The Iconoclast,” “John Knox and Mary Stuart,” and the series of pictures illustrating striking events in the war of the Revolution, of which the more important were “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” “Washington at Monmouth,” “Washington at the Battle of Monongahela,” “News from Lexington,” “Sergeant Jasper,” and “Washington at Princeton.” In 1859 Mr. Leutze returned to the United States and opened a studio in New York city. Early in 1860 he received a commission from the government for a large mural picture, to be painted on one of the staircases in the Capitol at Washington. The subject chosen was “Westward the Star of Empire takes its Way,” and the painting was to be executed in fresco. So earnestly did the artist enter into this work that he not only made the then difficult journey to the base of the Rocky mountains, for the purpose of local study, but, on his return, again departed for Munich, that he might learn from Kaulbach the mechanism of fresco-painting. He was elected a member of the National academy in 1860, and in 1867 exhibited his “Elaine” there.