Apotheosis of Trajan

Jennifer Tonkovich: At the time of his death, Lequeu owned an impressive library containing over 240 titles. The posthumous inventory of his apartment includes a list of books that comprise an intellectual portrait of the artist. His regular and intensive use of these sources is reflected in the copious writings on his drawings. One thing is evident, he was a bookworm. If we imagine ourselves in his studio among the bindings, we would find many classic works on architecture from tomes by the ancient Roman Vitruvius to the Italian Renaissance master, Andrea Palladio. He also own standard texts by contemporary French architects, such as Jean-François Blondel. Reflecting his polymath curiosity, he amassed volumes devoted to chemistry, mathematics, gardening, and the antiquities of Herculaneum. An avid reader of literature as well, he had editions of Michel de Montaigne's introspective essays, Jean de Lafontaine's amusing fables, and an 1804 French edition of the illustrated erotic masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, The Dream of Poliphilo by Vittorio Colonna. Lequeu also had access to a number of reference works and encyclopedias, and he was familiar with the many volumes of Diderot and d'Alembert's famous Encyclopédie. He was not shy about cracking open the binding on more scandalous titles, including Richard Payne Knight's illustrated exploration of The Ancient Cult of Priapus, the God of Fertility. All of these works helped fuel Lequeu's remarkable creations on paper and continue to inspire a sense of kinship with those whose imaginations are spurred by a good book.