Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste de Forbin
Encyclopedia
Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste, comte de Forbin (La Roque-d'Anthéron
, Bouches-du-Rhône
, 19 August 1779 – Paris, 23 February 1841) was the French painter and antiquary who succeeded Vivant-Denon
as curator of the Musée du Louvre and the other museums of France.
Born at his family's château, La Roque-d'Anthéron
, and a Chevallier of the Order of Malta from birth, he drew before he learned to write. In his earliest training he formed a friendship with François Marius Granet
that lasted through life. In the counter-revolutionary insurrection at Lyon
in 1793, where he was getting instruction from Jean-Jacques de Boissieu
, he lost his father, the marquis de Pont-à-Mousson
, and his uncle, and was saved only by his youth. The marquise withdrew with her children quietly to Vienne
and then to Provence
, weathering the extreme phases of the Revolution, while Forbin and Granet developed their art by drawing in the countryside. With the Directoire, it was secure for him to go to Paris, where his good looks and easy, elegant manner recommended him as well as his art. He called Granet to join him, and both entered the large studio of Jacques-Louis David
, virtually a neoclassical
academy, where they matured their taste. Forbin's first submissions to the Paris salon
were in 1796, 1799 and 1800.
He was conscripted into the army, married an heiress, Mlle de Dortan, then gained leave from his regiment in 1802 to travel to Rome with Granet, where he fell into the facile manner of a highly-accomplished dilettante, as he was received by the best of Francophile Roman society; in 1804 he was given the post of chamberlain to Princess Pauline Borghese.
Rejoining the army, he served with distinction under Junot
in Portugal, and received the Croix d'honneur, then served in the Austrian campaign of 1809, returning to Italy after the peace of Schönbrunn
. Here he produced his history paintings, Ines de Castro and The Taking of Granada as well as a sentimental novel, Charles Barimore (published anonymously, Paris 1810).
With the Bourbon Restoration
he was welcome in Paris to assume the post vacated by Vivant-Denon, too indelibly stamped with Napoleonic connections; the comte de Forbin was appointed general director of museums at the Musée du Louvre and Musée du Luxembourg
, which were suddenly denuded of their Napoleonic trophies, which were returned to Italy. The Borghese collection of antiquities purchased from Prince Camillo helped fill the void, and the former Cabinet du Roi and works of art in storage at Versailles
. The suites of paintings by Rubens and Le Sueur
from the Palais du Luxembourg now came to the Louvre, and the remnants of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic musée des Augustins, as the works that had been sequestered from churches were returned to them.
The Institut de France
was now reorganized, and in the Académie des Beaux-Arts
the comte de Forbin received a seat, by royal order, 16 April 1816. Forbin was made a commander of the Legion of Honor and an honorary Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber.
22 August 1817, was composed of Forbin, his cousin, abbé Charles-Marie-Auguste-Joseph de Forbin-Janson, later Bishop of Nancy, the architect Jean-Nicolas Huyot
, the painter Pierre Prévost
, later known for his landscape panoramas, and a young painter, Cochereau, Prévost's nephew, who was taken on to provide architectural drawings and renditions of sites, but succombed before the expedition reached Athens; almost unnoticed was a young man who swiftly took Cochereau's place, Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds
, destined for a career in Egypt. With the Cléopâtra and its chef de cuisine as a secure base, the party of connoisseurs visited the Greek islands, including Melos, where Huyot had the misfortune to break his leg and could not join the company at Athens, Constantinople, Smyrna, Ephesus, Acre
, Syria, Caesarea, Ascalon on the coast of Palestine, with a side trip to Jerusalem the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, and finally Egypt, where the voyagers reached Damietta
by caravan, then returned by the Nile to Cairo, where they disembarked in December 1818. The Voyage dans le Levant was published in 1819, with 80 plates. Another result was Forbin's modestly titled account of the voyage, illustrated with lithographs from his drawings, Livre de croquis d'un voyageur
, discovered in 1820. The Director of the Museums was able to get Louis XVIII
to set aside political distaste and authorize the purchase of David's Rape of the Sabine Women and Thermopyle for the Louvre, and, even more daring Théodore Géricault
's The Raft of the Medusa, which Forbin had been pressing as a royal purchase, and which was eventually bought from the painter's heirs in 1824.
Under his guidance post-Renaissance sculptures were brought together and exhibited as the musée d'Angolême, from the rooms that had served Napoleon's Council of State were exorcised with new decorative paintings and allegorical ceilings by the most current painters (1825–1827), and a musée Charles X opened in 1827 to display Etruscan and Egyptian antiquities. The palais du Luxembourg was opened as a museum of contemporary art purchased by the State. Plaster casts of antique sculptures, designed to inspire students, were actively sought out.
extended to him the position of director of the royal museums, but Alphonse de Cailleux
, who had been his administrative assistant for some time, was actually in charge. A second attack, 12 February 1841, left him paralysed and he died soon afterwards. Cailleux succeeded him in his Louvre post.
A commemorative Portefeuille of forty-five his drawings, with an appreciative text by his bother-in-lae M. de Macellus, was published in 1843.
La Roque-d'Anthéron
La Roque-d'Anthéron is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Silvacane Abbey, a former Cistercian monastery, is located near La Roque-d'Anthéron.-Population:-References:*...
, Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône is a department in the south of France named after the mouth of the Rhône River. It is the most populous department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Its INSEE and postal code is 13.-History of the department:...
, 19 August 1779 – Paris, 23 February 1841) was the French painter and antiquary who succeeded Vivant-Denon
Dominique Vivant
Dominique Vivant, Baron de Denon was a French artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist. He was appointed first director of the Louvre Museum by Napoleon after the Egyptian campaign of 1798-1801.-Biography:...
as curator of the Musée du Louvre and the other museums of France.
Born at his family's château, La Roque-d'Anthéron
La Roque-d'Anthéron
La Roque-d'Anthéron is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Silvacane Abbey, a former Cistercian monastery, is located near La Roque-d'Anthéron.-Population:-References:*...
, and a Chevallier of the Order of Malta from birth, he drew before he learned to write. In his earliest training he formed a friendship with François Marius Granet
François Marius Granet
François Marius Granet , French painter, was born in Aix-en-Provence; his father was a small builder.-Biography:...
that lasted through life. In the counter-revolutionary insurrection at Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
in 1793, where he was getting instruction from Jean-Jacques de Boissieu
Jean-Jacques de Boissieu
Jean-Jacques de Boissieu was a French draughtsman, etcher and engraverBoissieu was born at Lyon, and studied at the École Gratuite de Dessin in his home town, but was mostly self-taught...
, he lost his father, the marquis de Pont-à-Mousson
Pont-à-Mousson
Pont-à-Mousson is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.Population : 14,592 . It is an industrial town , situated on the Moselle River...
, and his uncle, and was saved only by his youth. The marquise withdrew with her children quietly to Vienne
Vienne
Vienne is the northernmost département of the Poitou-Charentes region of France, named after the river Vienne.- Viennese history :Vienne is one of the original 83 departments, established on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Poitou,...
and then to Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
, weathering the extreme phases of the Revolution, while Forbin and Granet developed their art by drawing in the countryside. With the Directoire, it was secure for him to go to Paris, where his good looks and easy, elegant manner recommended him as well as his art. He called Granet to join him, and both entered the large studio of Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
, virtually a neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
academy, where they matured their taste. Forbin's first submissions to the Paris salon
Paris Salon
The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...
were in 1796, 1799 and 1800.
He was conscripted into the army, married an heiress, Mlle de Dortan, then gained leave from his regiment in 1802 to travel to Rome with Granet, where he fell into the facile manner of a highly-accomplished dilettante, as he was received by the best of Francophile Roman society; in 1804 he was given the post of chamberlain to Princess Pauline Borghese.
Rejoining the army, he served with distinction under Junot
Jean-Andoche Junot
Jean-Andoche Junot, 1st Duke of Abrantès was a French general during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.-Early life:...
in Portugal, and received the Croix d'honneur, then served in the Austrian campaign of 1809, returning to Italy after the peace of Schönbrunn
Treaty of Schönbrunn
The Treaty of Schönbrunn , sometimes known as the Treaty of Vienna, was signed between France and Austria at the Schönbrunn Palace of Vienna on 14 October 1809. This treaty ended the Fifth Coalition during the Napoleonic Wars...
. Here he produced his history paintings, Ines de Castro and The Taking of Granada as well as a sentimental novel, Charles Barimore (published anonymously, Paris 1810).
With the Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
he was welcome in Paris to assume the post vacated by Vivant-Denon, too indelibly stamped with Napoleonic connections; the comte de Forbin was appointed general director of museums at the Musée du Louvre and Musée du Luxembourg
Musée du Luxembourg
Musée du Luxembourg is a museum in Paris, France. It occupies the east wing of the Palais du Luxembourg, whose matching west wing originally housed Ruben's Marie de' Medici cycle. Since 2000 it has been run by the French Ministry of Culture and the Senate and is devoted to temporary exhibitions...
, which were suddenly denuded of their Napoleonic trophies, which were returned to Italy. The Borghese collection of antiquities purchased from Prince Camillo helped fill the void, and the former Cabinet du Roi and works of art in storage at Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
. The suites of paintings by Rubens and Le Sueur
Eustache Le Sueur
Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur , one of the founders of the French Academy of Painting, was born in Paris, where he passed his whole life....
from the Palais du Luxembourg now came to the Louvre, and the remnants of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic musée des Augustins, as the works that had been sequestered from churches were returned to them.
The Institut de France
Institut de France
The Institut de France is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is the Académie française.The institute, located in Paris, manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and chateaux open for visit. It also awards prizes and subsidies, which...
was now reorganized, and in the Académie des Beaux-Arts
Académie des beaux-arts
The Académie des Beaux-Arts is a French learned society. It is one of the five academies of the Institut de France.It was created in 1795 as the merger of the:* Académie de peinture et de sculpture...
the comte de Forbin received a seat, by royal order, 16 April 1816. Forbin was made a commander of the Legion of Honor and an honorary Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber.
The voyage of the Cléopâtra
For an expedition to the Levant, to purchase Greek and Roman works of art, the frigate Cléopâtra was assigned to Forbin. The company, which departed from ToulonToulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
22 August 1817, was composed of Forbin, his cousin, abbé Charles-Marie-Auguste-Joseph de Forbin-Janson, later Bishop of Nancy, the architect Jean-Nicolas Huyot
Jean-Nicolas Huyot
Jean-Nicholas Huyot was a French architect, best known for his 1823 continuation of work on the Arc de Triomphe from the plans of Jean Chalgrin....
, the painter Pierre Prévost
Pierre Prévost
Pierre Prévost was a Swiss philosopher and physicist. In he showed that all bodies radiate heat, no matter how hot or cold they are.-Life:...
, later known for his landscape panoramas, and a young painter, Cochereau, Prévost's nephew, who was taken on to provide architectural drawings and renditions of sites, but succombed before the expedition reached Athens; almost unnoticed was a young man who swiftly took Cochereau's place, Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds
Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds
Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds better known as Linant Pasha was an explorer of Egypt and, as the chief engineer of Egypt's public works, 1831–1869, the chief engineer of the Suez Canal.- Life and work :Having taken advantage of a sound education that emphasized mathematics,...
, destined for a career in Egypt. With the Cléopâtra and its chef de cuisine as a secure base, the party of connoisseurs visited the Greek islands, including Melos, where Huyot had the misfortune to break his leg and could not join the company at Athens, Constantinople, Smyrna, Ephesus, Acre
Akka
Akka is traditionally a female spirit in Sámi and Finnish mythology.In Sámi mythology, the first akka was Maderakka and her daughters were Sarakka, Uksakka and Juksakka. Some Sámi thought they lived under their kota tents....
, Syria, Caesarea, Ascalon on the coast of Palestine, with a side trip to Jerusalem the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, and finally Egypt, where the voyagers reached Damietta
Damietta
Damietta , also known as Damiata, or Domyat, is a port and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo.-History:...
by caravan, then returned by the Nile to Cairo, where they disembarked in December 1818. The Voyage dans le Levant was published in 1819, with 80 plates. Another result was Forbin's modestly titled account of the voyage, illustrated with lithographs from his drawings, Livre de croquis d'un voyageur
The museums of France
Some remnants of Antiquity from the tour entered the Louvre, but the coup was the acquisition of the Venus de MiloVenus de Milo
Aphrodite of Milos , better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly...
, discovered in 1820. The Director of the Museums was able to get Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
to set aside political distaste and authorize the purchase of David's Rape of the Sabine Women and Thermopyle for the Louvre, and, even more daring Théodore Géricault
Théodore Géricault
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault was a profoundly influential French artist, painter and lithographer, known for The Raft of the Medusa and other paintings...
's The Raft of the Medusa, which Forbin had been pressing as a royal purchase, and which was eventually bought from the painter's heirs in 1824.
Under his guidance post-Renaissance sculptures were brought together and exhibited as the musée d'Angolême, from the rooms that had served Napoleon's Council of State were exorcised with new decorative paintings and allegorical ceilings by the most current painters (1825–1827), and a musée Charles X opened in 1827 to display Etruscan and Egyptian antiquities. The palais du Luxembourg was opened as a museum of contemporary art purchased by the State. Plaster casts of antique sculptures, designed to inspire students, were actively sought out.
Decline
At the end of 1828 the comte de Forbin suffered a partial stroke, from which he never fully recovered. His intellectual faculties were affected, and his memory. He withdrew into a studious solitude, retouching — and spoiling — the paintings of his youth. Louis-PhilippeLouis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
extended to him the position of director of the royal museums, but Alphonse de Cailleux
Alphonse de Cailleux
Alphonse de Cailleux, in full Alexandre-Alphonse-Achille, vicomte de Cailloux was a painter, connoisseur and arts administrator who became director of the Musée du Louvre and all the royal museums of France. Under the Bourbon Restoration he was attached to the reconstituted royal household...
, who had been his administrative assistant for some time, was actually in charge. A second attack, 12 February 1841, left him paralysed and he died soon afterwards. Cailleux succeeded him in his Louvre post.
A commemorative Portefeuille of forty-five his drawings, with an appreciative text by his bother-in-lae M. de Macellus, was published in 1843.
Works
- l'Éruption du Vésuve
- la Mort de Pline
- la Vision d'Ossian
- la Procession des Pénitents noirs
- une Scène de l'Inquisition
- Inès de Castro
- le Campo Santode Pise
- le Cloître de Santa Maria Novella à FlorenceFlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
Further reading
- Grinhard, Olivier, "Un émule de Chateaubriand : le comte de Forbin, voyageur et écrivain" Chateaubriand en Orient: Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem. 1806–1807 Exhibition catalogue, 2006.
- Angrand, P. Le comte Forbin et le Louvre en 1819 (Lausanne) 1972,