Pair of Topographical Portraits of the Pavillion and Village of Vaux-Sur-Seine

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Pair of Topographical Portraits of the Pavillion and Village of Vaux-Sur-Seine

About the Item

A pair of Topographical Portraits of the Pavillion and Village of Vaux-Sur-Seine, Painted for Jacques Fayolle, Ingenieur du Roi, by Pierre-Denis Martin. The House Almost Certainly Designed by Robert de Cotte (1717-1734). Also Known Latterly as the Pavillion D’Artois Brother of Louis XVI, Charles-Phillipe, Comte D’Artois, Later Charles X. These paintings present a unique portrait of a gentleman’s house of a middle size, described in the 1746 Acte de Vente as a maison bougoise. This prosaic description belies its importance. The 1726 Acte de Vente describes a much older house with a courtyard in front on the road side, La Route Basse de Paris à Paris, otherwise known locally at the time as the Rue Royale. The original house is described as having a tower and a lower courtyard enclosing a garden. It would appear to have been set further back from the new house and with a fountain in front. The whole garden was enclosed by a hedge. The two wings either side of the gate date from the second half of the 17th. Century; the descriptions in 1726 corresponding almost exactly with those in the 1746 Act of Sale. (See list of Owners and Leaseholders below.) The monogram above the gate also predates the first, so far, discovered Acte de Vente between the painter Hyacinthe Rigaud and Louis Hébert de Saint Gervais in 1699. The attribution of the building to Robert de Cotte is obviously based on the working relationship between Jacques Fayolle and Daniel Charles Trudaine. Little is known of Jacques Fayolle except that he was an écuyer ingénieur du roi, inspecteur honoraire des ponts et chaussées de France et chevalier de l’ordre de saint Michel. This immediately places him within the ranks of the nobility and, as such, he would have been entitled to hunt, a privilege enshrined in the Grands Ordonance des Eaux et Fôrets 1516, François I, and 1669, Louis XIV, which were, if anything even stricter. By painting a hunting carriage about to enter the front courtyard, Fayolle is making a statement of rank. This was not something open to the previous owner, Antoine de Rey de Soupa though he claimed to be un écuyer as secrétaire de commandement du feu Madame la duchesse de Berry, the secretary of the late Duchesse de Berry. This lady was the daughter of the Duc d’Orléans and wife of the third son of the Grand Dauphin. In 1711, the succession seem to be assured; he had a son and heir, the Duke de Bourgogne, who had two small sons. In 1711, the Dauphin fell ill with smallpox and died; then in February 1712 an epidemic of measles carried off the Duke and the Duchesse de Bourgogne and their eldest son. The younger son (later Louis XV) was delicate and not expected to live. This left the Duke de Berry, not particularly intelligent, but he was fit and an exceptional horseman. His wife though was thoroughly dissolute and lost all the children she carried at birth or shortly afterwards. Nevertheless the households of the Duke and Duchesse de Berri were the most important after that of the King. In 1714, however, the Duke had a serious accident while out hunting and died, followed a few weeks later by another dead baby for the Duchess. In 1715 the King died The Duchess was now unimportant even as daughter of her father the Regent of France. She was a disgrace because of her debauchery and died in July 1719. Antoine De Rey de Soupa was out of a job and settled into life at his small estate at Vaux. He immediately got a reputation for himself as a violent and arrogant man. He encroached on the land of his neighbours and in the case of the meadow at the bottom of his garden along the shores of the River Seine, he dug a ditch and filled it with stones. When the owner, Sebastien Damville objected, he laid into him with such force that he feared for his life. When the case came to court, he tried to stop the case by invoking noble privilege as a noble . In fact his post within the Duchesse de Berri’s household did not give him the right to style himself as an écuyer. His position was further compromised when it emerged that he had styled himself as a bourgeois in order to avoid paying tax on the property he bought from Hyacinthe Rigaud . He and his wife, equally repulsive, though genuinely of very high Italian noble birth, were imprisoned in the Château de Vaux whose two round towers can be seen to the top left-hand side of the Pavillon de Vaux from the garden side. One tower was known as the Tour des Hommes and the other as the Tour des Femmes. Damville’s rightful boundary was restored. De Rey de Soupa’s wealth was severely compromised and he sold up, though he retained some land at Vaux until he died at his house in Paris, Saint Germain de l’Auxerois after he sold the Pavillon to Jacques Fayolle in 1726, probably ten years later. Fayolle’s intentions to rebuild are expressed in the 1726 Acte de Vente. He builds a very elegant house with a beautiful garden. The incomplete wall close to the river is, perhaps a reference to Damville’s boundary and the preservation of his rights of property. Fayolle himself carried on a protracted case against his neighbour, a Monsieur Rondelle. He too tried to stop Rondelle pursuing the case of encroachment on his property by invoking rights of nobility. The judge threw it out and Fayolle gave in but not after appealing it to a another court. Robert de Cotte (1717-1734). The architectural style of this building is very much in the manner of Robert de Cotte, the pupil and, later brother-in-law of Jules Hardouin-Mansart. It is very much a house of a middle size and could easily be transported to Paris as a townhouse, as the drawings below show. De Cotte had also studied garden design under the great André Le Notre and his drawings often combine floor plans with gardens. The Pavillon de Vaux was built between 1726 and 1730. The Pavillon was almost certainly built as a small hunting lodge or ‘maison de plaissance’ which was not unusual at that date. Louis XIII himself had the architect Philibert Leroy build him a small château de chasse at nearby Versailles . A good deal of the area to the west and south of Paris was wooded and a favourite hunting ground for stags as well as shooting for pheasants. Hunting was exclusively the privilege of the nobility. The Grand Ordonance des Eaux et Forets decreed by Francois I in 1516 was restated even more strictly by Louis XIV in 1669. This building of a myriad number of small châteaux and hunting lodges with small domains was to increase exponentially during the reign of Louis XIV. By keeping the whole of the nobility under his watchful eye at Versailles, he deprived them of meaningful power to such an extent that banishment to their estates in the country, often many miles from the pleasures of Paris and political influence at Court, was considered a disgrâce. Being close to the person of the King was essential and an invitation to hunt with him a signal mark of favour. Nancy Mitford describes the Île de France as ‘like an enormous park or garden, containing thousands of glorious houses; rural France was a desert. …Most of the great nobles were total absentees from their estates; they revolved around the Court, with a town house in Paris, a country villa within easy reach of Versailles and, if they were lucky a flat in the Palace itself.’ Louis XV continued his Great Grandfather’s policy when the duc d’Orléans brought him back to Versailles. The court, of course, went with him. Like Louis XIV he moved around his various châteaux in the Île de France and, from 1722 commissioned a series of paintings of them, many from Pierre-Denis Martin. He was exceedingly fond of hunting and would often visit the houses of the nobility. The Pavillon de Vaux, as it is presented to us in the paintings by P-D Martin, shows us just such a house. On the garden side a considerable amount of attention has been paid to the layout of the formal garden which follows the tradition of Le Notre It continued to be very fashionable and are described in great detail by Antoine-Josephe Dézallier d’Argenville (1680-1765) in his book, La Théorie et la Pratique du Jardinage, Paris 1709. The elaborate ‘broderies’ of flowers, box hedging and gravel are laid out close to the house with ponds and fountains adding sound to the ambience. Geometric parterres, potagers and orchards form part of the whole design which could be quite small as in his design for a 12 acre garden; ‘Un Jardin â douze Arpents.’ Pleached limes were also an important aspect as were also the extensive use of wooden trelliswork: treillage. The front of the building on the road side presents an unusual central doorcase with an oeuil de boeuf above. It first makes an appearance in France in the architecture of Jacques Ardrouait de Cerceau, who also designed gardens. In addition to his work as Architect to the King and Surintendant des Batiments (1708-1734), de Cotte had a considerable practice outside France as well a large private clientèle within the Kingdom. He would have known Jacques Fayolle as an Ingénieur du Roi. The Atlas de Trudaine The identification of the village of Vaux-sur-Seine compares exactly with that shown in the Atlas de Trudaine (cote CP/F/14/8447/43 Archive Nationales, Caran). Fig. 1. The main subject of the paintings is that of the Pavillon de Vaux which in the Atlas illustrates the former route basse Rouen/Paris: Evequement et Vaux Beauregard. The Île de Vaux, which can be seen in the river, was at that time divided into three. Daniel Charles Trudaine (1703-1769) had a remarkable career as Director of the Roads and Bridges of France. From 1744 he begin the immense task of improving the roads in the Kingdom, a task which was incomplete at his death but which continued. The Atlas, bound in 62 volumes contains over 3,000 hand-coloured plates from 1745 to 1780. Trudaine’s roads survive to the present day as Routes Nationales and are distinguished by their straightness and their being lined with trees. The son of Charles Trudaine, Provost of the Merchants of Paris, his family owned a chateau near Montigny, South West of Paris. As an Ingénieur du Roi he would certainly have known Robert de Cotte as Premier Architecte du Roi, 1708-1734. A drawing for work at the Chateau de Trudaine by Robert de Cotte is in the Bibliotèque Nationale de France. He would also have known Jacques Fayolle. Pierre-Denis Martin (1663-1742) Pierre-Dennis Martin was one of a duo of iconographical painters, the older being Jean-Baptiste Martin (1659-1735) who may have been a cousin or older brother of the younger Martin. Jean-Baptiste painted a considerable number of iconographical landscapes particularly of battle scenes where the King is shown at the front of the picture. This was something that the King particularly liked; as the Roi Soleil, it pleased him to be at the centre of the painting and became a frequent point de depart for the viewer. It was repeated frequently in many of the works by the Martins and continued into the following reign. An early example, circa 1717, is that of the arrival of the young Louis XV with the Regent, duc d’Orleans at the Château de la Muette. This building was situated very closely to the entrance to the Bois du Bolougne. Built in the 16th. Century for Princess Marguerite de Valois, it passed into the hands of the Regent, who gave it to Louis XV. The entrance to the Pavillon de Vaux follows a similar composition, though on a far more modest scale, with the arrival of a hunting carriage of half gilded and black leather. By this date the small front wheels of the carriage had begun to be abandoned and it was driven either by the occupant or by a postillion. In the La Muette painting the wigs that the young king and the Regent wear are full bottomed wigs but the figure in the foreground with his back to the viewer is wearing the ‘Perruque a queue’ which Louis XV adopted upon his majority. In the Vaux paintings it is this type of wig which is worn by the two mounted figures. Unlike Jean-Baptiste, the younger Martin did some private commissions such as the Chateau de Beaurepaire (Musee de Beaux Arts, Rouen), The Chateau de Portchartrain The Chateau de Bercy (Chateau de Brissac). Perhaps the largest of these is the spectacular view of the Chateau de Juvissy and its gardens (recently acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London). The Pavillion de Vaux Today, now Known as the Pavillion D’Artois This is largely unchanged from 1730 but it has acquired a Louis XVI façade of sorts. The first floor windows have been lowered and neo-classical bas-reliefs, in the manner of Boizot, inserted above. A balcony has been added to the central block and the wings have been raised in height. The alterations give it an air of the Comte d’Artois’ Château de Bagatelle built by François-Joseph Bélager in 1775. The interiors of the building are largely in a Louis XVI style but these would have been carried out under the ownership of Madame de Beaulieu. This façade has been given a radical alteration in the gout-grec style and was very likely to have been done by Jean Pillot after he bought the Pavillon in 1795. It combines the style of Charles de Wailly with that of Claude Nicholas Ledoux. The Comte D’Artois and Vaux What connects the Comte d’Artois is hunting above all. He was as passionate about it as his brother, the King, and he had hunting lodges everywhere. As these were small buildings, they were often administered under larger ones. So, in 1777, he bought the Chateau de Maisons from the descendants of the last Marquis de Maisons and ordered his architect, François-Joseph Bélanger in 1778 to carry out extensive alterations to the interior. Maisons was well known to the Royal Family as far back as 1651 when the young King Louis XIV spent seven days there. In 1784 he ordered his architects Bélanger and Chalgrin to survey land between the Château de Val and the Château de Carrière and buying the farm at Vaux-sous-Bois nearby, all to provide facilities for hunting. His greatest extravagance was the building of another hunting pavillion, La Faisanderie, which was completed in 1789 at the huge cost of 160,000 livres . All of this came under the administration of Maisons. The King also took an interest in the hunting round Maisons and, in 1778, commanded his architects Richard Mique and Jacques-Germain Soufflot to survey land starting at Jouy de Moustières, Vaux, Triel and on to Courdimanche. This was for the purpose of planting trees and buying up all the land that he did not already own. It cost a total of 2.716 livres. No formal lease between the Comte d’Artois and Madame de Beaulieu has come to light but the association with the Pavillon de Vaux dates from this period. The most likely arrangement is that it was at the disposal of the Comte d’Artois when he and the King were hunting nearby. The owner, Madame de Beaulieu, would hardly refused them. Hence the present day name for it: The Pavillon d’Artois. Full Description of the Paintings Garden Side These views show a small village in the Île de France not far to the West of Paris and close to the town of Meulan. It is situated in the Val-de-Seine on a North/South axis at a bend in the River Seine. Viewed from the garden side it shows a small five bay, three storey Château in the middle distance now known locally as the Pavillon d’Artois. The garden side is lower than the road side and this is illustrated by the raised terrace to either side upon which is a long arcaded ‘treillage’ topped with round finials. Below the terrace, the painting shows a formal garden of flowers, box hedging and topiary and a wooden latticework temple to the left hand side. A circular pool and fountain jet terminates the first half of the garden which descends towards the River Seine. The middle section consists of an octagonal pool and fountain jet bounded by grass parterres of conforming shape. To the left is an oblong garden room with an open latticework temple and to the right a small oblong room each enclosed with hedges and topiary. Elegant figures stroll in this part of the garden. A high stone wall encloses the whole of the garden. However the riverside wall is only partially built and is probably being reconstructed and strengthened with buttresses. The wall is very close to the river and a pile of stones lies just outside it. Various figures in working dress walk close by; a groom leads a grey and a chestnut horse into the river and two open boats laden with cargo are being rowed. Outside the garden to the left is a lane flanked by stone walls; an open drainage duct runs into the river. There is an orchard to the left of the wall, and to the right, a formal arrangement of small enclosed paddocks. To the left of the pavillon is a formal potager and on the other side of the lane a pedimented building, probably an Orangery abuts one of the wings. The two wings project towards the road with a curtain wall along the road pierced with a side entrance set at an angle. The Village Viewing the picture from left to right, a cluster of stone buildings is to the left of the formal potager. On the other side of the road is the church of Saint Pierre ès Liens and next to that the Château de Vaux with a small stone building beyond. To the right are extensive orchards, fields and vineyards all enclosed by stone walls which rise steeply up the hill. The road descends from the church towards the Pavillon and bears round the Pavillon buildings and the side gate. It continues Eastward between two walls. To the extreme right is a three bay square house set back from the road with extensive houses and outbuildings, orchard and vineyards facing South. This was the house of the royal portrait painter Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743). A small road runs up to the right of the large house. All the buildings have red tiled roofs with the exception of the Pavillon’s central building and parts of the Château which are slated. The far ground shows steep terrain running up to an undulating ridge. The Road Side This picture is entirely dominated by the front aspect of the Pavillon. The cobbled road outside the walls is ‘La Route Basse de Rouen - Paris’ as it was known before the French Revolution. It is now known as the Rue Général de Gaulle. The Pavillon is viewed from sloping higher ground with a screen of trees just below. From the left , travelling along the road is a haywain drawn by three horses. Just in front a half gilded and black hunting carriage is drawn by two greys. The nearside grey is mounted with a postillion in a red coat who is turning the horses toward the main gate held open by a groom. To the left of the gate an elegantly dressed couple stops to let them pass; the gentleman (with sword) doffs his tricorn hat to the occupant of the carriage. To the right, a servant also doffs his hat while to the right a figure mounted on a grey canters away. Both he and the postillion are wearing identical cloths with feathered tricorn hats and blue saddle cloths bordered with yellow, possibly the domestic livery of the house. Each wears his hair ‘à queue’. Another figure runs towards the carriage while further figures and horses laden with goods walk along the road. The outbuildings and their walls follow the contour of the road. The entrance to the ‘cour d’honneur is formed of rusticated stone piers flanked by pedestrian gates and with wrought iron gates surmounted with a wrought iron monogram. To either side of the courtyard are two storey wings with leaded light dormer windows (lucarnes). These are attached to the Pavillon by walls pierced with arches. Within the courtyard two dogs strain at their handler’s leash, a servant is to the right while the eye is drawn to the female figure standing in the open central doorway, perhaps the châtelaine of the Pavillon. The five bay structure itself is built of stone; it is of two storeys over a basement and has a three bay middle section, ‘in antis’, with an oculus above the main door; the outer windows are flanked by pilaster like mouldings. All the windows have stone or wooden transoms set with quarter panes of glass. Beyond the arcaded treillage lie densely wooded plantations to both left and right. This is at odds with the depiction in the garden side painting where enclosed paddocks and an orchard are shown. This could, however, be foreshortening or licence on the artist’s part. In the middle ground, beyond the garden, are three islands, now united as one and known as the Île de Vaux. Three vessels are being towed by horses on the opposite river bank. These are not under sail. Although navigable, the River Seine at this date constantly flooded. It may explain repairs to the garden wall. In the foreground rising up from the South bank are two small lakes, now known as the Étangs de Rouillard. Further up the hill a road, La Rue de Meulan, threads its way westwards towards Meulan. Along its route, lie the villages of Médan (extreme left), Verneuil, Vernouillet and Les Mureaux (extreme right). The Houses and Property of Hyacinthe Rigaud at Vaux The purchase, by the artist, of a house and small domaine at Vaux came about because of his relationship with Elizabeth de Gouy. She was the daughter of Jérôme de Gouy, marchand bourgeois de Paris, and of Marguerite Mallet. Rigaud had lent the de Gouys 1,100 livres as well as advancing the considerable amount of 10,000 livres to Elizabeth’s husband. She had, in 1694 married Sieur Le Juge. By way of security before this marriage and, as a means to provide her with an income, he bought the land at Vaux. « de terres à la campagne consistant en une maison de fond en comble avec ses apartenances et dépendances […], le tout situé à Vaux, rue aux Pelles et appartenant depuis 1683 à Jérôme de Gouy, marchand bourgeois de Paris et Marguerite Mallet, sa femme »1. According to a contract of sale, Rigaud sold this house on the 28th. March 1703 à Pierre Mériel, tenturier de soie de Paris for 1,000 livres. He had already bought the Pavillon de Vaux from Louis Hébert de Saint Gervais whose wife, Marie Mériel, was almost certainly Pierre’s sister. He added to this in 1707, providing her with a lease on other land he had bought that year. The first will of Hyacianthe Rigaud of 30th. October 1707 says: Given and bequeathed to Mme Elizabeth de Gouy widow of the Sieur Le Juge the enjoyment and life interest as long as she shall live of the farm and dependcies situated at Vaux near Triel’ (AN, ét., XCV, liasse 36) Elizabeth had no money of her own. The assets of her husband having been specifically excluded from the marriage contract, she is described as une ‘épouse séparée quant aux biens du Sieur Le Juge son mary, demeurant à Paris, rue Neuve et paroisse Saint-Eustache, envers le sieur Mariette, officier du Roi ‘. Le Juge had died that year but it was not until the 10th. May 1710, that a contract of marriage was drawn up between them. He also provided annuities which paid her an annual income too, which by the time of her death in 1744, amounted to some 1500 livres per annum. Rigaud took the Le Juge’s daughter into his own household and they are all three of them depicted in Rigaud’s portrait of them. The marriage was a very long and happy one. Some speculation has arisen as to why he took so long to marry her but it is possible that his status prevented him from doing so. However on 17 – 19 June 1709 Rigaud was created Citoyen noble de Perpignan (Lettres de Nobles de Perpignan). He was therefore entitled to be called Hyacinthe Rigaud de Perpignan. The first house still exists at Vaux though the second floor was raised in the 19th. Century. The Rue aux Pelles is indicated in another more clearly drawn map and corresponds just to the right of this house. The road opposite is la Ruelle de Chandelet which no longer exists but the line of it is clearly visible on the modern day Google Map. The Rue de la Montagne is now a cul-de-sac. The second house that Rigaud owned was the Pavillon de Vaux itself which he bought from Louis Hébert de Saint Gervais in 1699. However, the building that Rigaud would have known was completely different from the one in the painting. The wings and the entrance were substantially the same though some architectural embellishments were added by Robert de Cotte. The building described in the 1726 Acte de Vente between Rigaud and Antoine de Rey de Soupa had a tower with a lower courtyard enclosing a garden. There was also a fountain in the upper courtyard and the original building must have been set back from this fountain. Owners & Leaseholders of the Pavillion de Vaux up Until the Revolution. The monogramme above the gates may represent Claude de Longueil, Marquis de Maisons (1668-1715) 3rd. Maquis de Maisons as the Château de Maisons is not very far away. A connection made by Jacqueline Trouchard with the Marquis de Louvois is completely without documentary foundation. Louis Hébert de Saint Gervais, before 1699, sold it to: Hyacinthe Rigaud who bought the Pavillon in 1699 according to the Acte de Vente du 4 Mai 1746), MC/ET/XX/590 and sold it to: Antoine de Rey du Soupa on the 24th. February 1714 described as ‘secrétaire de commandement de feu Madame la duchesse de Berry et de Dame Marie Frédéric L’Evêque Soulpour.’ He sold it on the 14th. February 1726 MC/ET/CXVIII/347 to: Jacques Fayolle, écuyer ingénieur du roi, inspecteur honoraire des ponts et chaussées de France et chevalier de l’ordre de saint Michel. (ibid). He sold it on the 15th. October 1744 to: Claude Germain Armand maitre serurier à Paris. His widow sold it on the 4th. May 1746 (ibid) to : Antoine Wiard Ingénieur en chef, Chevalier de Saint Louis. He sold it to: Etienne Pierre Masson de Maison Rouge, Ecuyer conseiller du Roy, receveur général de finance who sold it on the 13th. July 1752, MC/ET/I/458, to: Marie Louise Genret who married a Monsieur de Beaulieu. She owned the property in her own right, as Madame de Beaulieu. She certainly leased it to Antoine-Louis Séguier in the 1760’s and it is very likely that the Comte d’Artois had the use of it after he bought the Chateau de Maisons and maybe even before that with the land purchases at Vaux by the King in 1778. She died in 1792 and her widower sold it to Jean Pillot on the 5th. May 1795 (19 Floréal, An III). The Chateau de Vaux The Chateau and its domaine of Vaux was given by Louis XII to his favourite d’Olivier le Daim. This man began his life as the barber to the King and rapidly gained his favour. His influence over the King caused considerable resentment; he was created Comte de Meulan but was murdered almost immediately after the King’s death. After the fall of Olivier le Daim, the estate passed to the duc d’Orléans, Louis XII’s cousin who succeeded as François I, though he arrived too late to intervene to prevent le Daim’s lynching at the hands of the nobility. Thus for a short time in the early 16th. Century, the Château was in royal hands . He became the new owner of the Chateau as all the barber’s property was forfeit to the Crown. He then granted it to the Vion family and thence by marriage to the familles of La Fontiane, de St Simon and to Billart de Losière in whose hands it remained until seized by creditors in 1755. Part of the estate was the Baillywick of Vaux under Meulan. The Château passed through various hands and was bought, circa 1820, by the sculptor, Baron Carlo Marochetti, whose descendants still own it. Archives Nationales, Paris MC/ET/CXVIII/347 De Rey de Soupa even tricked his soldier son into returning by promising him a 40,000 livres settlement for his marriage. The son who detested his parents was nearly implicated in an assassination attempt on Dampier. He made good his escape but was re-instated and exonerated. All the sales of the Pavillon de Vaux are described as of property en révole. This meant that the freehold of the land was a fief of the Seigneur de Vaux, Ballard de Losière and conferred no rights of nobility. A nominal ground rent was also payable to the Seigneur each year. A full account of this case and of his character is given by Louis Mannory (1703-1769) in Vexations Odieuses, Vol. 12, pp. 65-75. He invoked his rights as a commitimus. This allowed the commensaux to have any civil suit in which they were plaintiffs or defendants tried before the Prévôté de l'Hôtel, a special court attached to the king's household with jurisdiction within a circle of 10 leagues around the king's court (wherever that might be located), instead of the normal courts. These privileges lasted only as long as the position was held and were neither lifelong nor inheritable but were attached to certain offices of the Crown. On a much grander scale Louis XIV at Versailles did not have the heart to destroy his father’s much beloved hunting lodge and retained the brick and stone façade with the dormer windows above, though much embellished with gilded lead adornments still in place today. Nancy Mitford: Madame de Pompadour, (Pub. Hamish Hamilton, London Revised ed. 1968), pp.11-12. List of Royal Châteaux: Versailles, Marly, Fontainbleau, Chambourg, Meudon, Grand Trianon, Saint Germain, Vincennes, Chatelain, Madrid, Compiègne, Bercy, Rambouillet, Saint Hubert, Choisy, La Muette. Whom Louis XIV acquired after the fall of Nicholas Fouquet, his finance minister, the builder of the Château de Vaux le Vicomte. This is the surviving middle section only. The older Château is completely destroyed. The Comte d’Artois was ordered to leave France in July 1789 by the King along with the Duke and Duchess de Polignac, the most unpopular people in France. Almost all the Comte’s property was held during the life of the King as an Appanage. The King paid his brother’s huge debts on more than one occasion. When asked to pay the debts of Maisons, the King refused because it was the Comte d’Artois’ private property. The Seine was not canalised with embankments until the 19th. Century. Barthélemy Boisseau, marchand épicier à Paris, et que ce dernier n’a toujours pas versé contre l’achat d’une maison rue Bourg l’Abbé, le 15 juin 1687.'Acte du 20 septembre 1694. Paris, AN, MC, ét. CVIII, 229. Archives Nationales, Paris MC/ET/CXVIII/ 347, p.11. Hunt Documents for Louis XVI at Vaux: Catalogue Générale des Cartes, Plans et Dessins d’Architecture, Tome III, Série N, N III Seine-et-Oise 495. 1-2 /4563.

Creator:
Pierre-Denis Martin (Artist)
Dimensions:
Height: 60.24 in (153 cm)Width: 60.24 in (153 cm)Depth: 3.94 in (10 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 2
Style:
Louis XIV (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Canvas,Painted
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
Early 18th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1730
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Measurements with frame.
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU4249113729861