1794 Monneron – Robillard
Géricault Life
Mariage Biancour et Carvoisin, (detail) Signatures, 7 Floréal An 2 (April 26, 1794) Archives Nationales, MC/ET/ XCVI/568, Notaire Doilot. Image courtesy Archives Nationales (France).
Introduction
Charles Biancour’s place in Théodore Géricault scholarship has been a minor one to date. After the death of Théodore’s mother in March, 1808, Géricault and his father moved from the Caruel-Géricault apartments at n° 96 rue de l’Université into apartments at n° 8 rue de la Michodière, owned by Charles Biancour, north of the Seine. Scholars have long known that Charles Biancour was one of the partners of Robillard tobacco enterprise created in 1800 to replace the largely unknown ealier iterations of this partnership built around the Robillard and Caruel families. Géricault scholars believe that Théodore Géricault and his father moved from the rue de la Michodière to the rue des Martyrs late in 1813. The hitherto unknown marriage contract of Charles Biancour and Noel Genevieve Carvoisin of 1794 allows us to learn much more about the early personal and business relationships uniting this important group of figures.
Joseph François Augustin Monneron
François Augustin Monneron lived at the Hôtel Longueville as a senior administrator in the French monopoly until early 1792. The Monnereon family was involved in many sectors of the French economy and active in the French East India company. Their activities in the tobacco trade assign the Monnerons a footnote role in Géricault studies. Charles Biancour worked with the Monneron interests in the Indian ocean. Alexandrine Modeste de Saint Martin, Géricault’s main love, was a direct descendant of Didier de Saint Martin, former governor of the île de Bourbon, and former syndic of the East India company. My working view is that Jean Baptiste Caruel came in contact with Alexandrine Modeste de Saint Martin socially through Biancour, or others intimate with the families of former East India company administrators.
1794 Marriage: Biancour & Carvoisin
Mariage Biancour et Carvoisin, (detail) 7 Floréal An 2 (April 26, 1794) Archives Nationales, MC/ET/ XCVI/568, Notaire Doilot. Image courtesy Archives Nationales (France).
Charles Biancour is identified as one of the entrepreneurs in the tobacco concern based at the Hôtel de Longueville at the time of this marriage. Our interest in François Augustin Monneron here is in Monneron’s presence as a witness to the marriage of Charles Biancour and Noel Genevieve Carvoisin on April 26, 1794, and, in particular, the manner in which his presence is recorded. We might very much expect Monneron to attend and witness such a marriage, given his social status and his familiarity with the Biancour and Carvoisin families. However, this marriage is very much a business and family affair. Charles Biancour, one of the partners in the tobacco enterprise at the maison Longueville is marrying into the family of another partner, Étienne Carvoison, paternal uncle of the bride. This is the earliest notarial document, chronologically, confirming that Biancour and Carvoisin were partners in the tobacco concern at the Hôtel de Longueville. The witnesses are described as follows:
“En présence du Cn. Etienne Carvoisin aussi l’un des Entrepreneurs delad. manufacture de tabac oncle Paternal de la future, Jacques Florent Robillard aussi l’une des Entrepreneurs de lad. Manufacture, Joseph François Augustin Monneron aussi l’un desdit entrepreneurs.”
Mariage Biancour et Carvoisin, (detail) 7 Floréal An 2 (April 26, 1794) Archives Nationales, MC/ET/ XCVI/568, Notaire Doilot. Image courtesy Archives Nationales (France).
Original Partners in the Tobacco Enterprise at the Maison Longueville
The marriage contract attests in entirely unambiguous language that all three witnesses to this marriage: – Étienne Carvoisin, Jacques Florent Robillard, and Joseph François Augustin Monneron – are partners, co-associés, in the same tobacco concern at the maison Longueville:
“In the presence of Citizen Étienne Carvoisin, also one of the Entrepreneurs of the aforementioned (tobacco) manufactory (and) Paternal uncle of the future (bride); Jacques Florent Robillard, also one of the Entrepreneurs of the aforementioned (tobacco) manufactory; Joseph François Augustin Monneron also one of the aforementioned entrepreneurs.”
With the addition of the three new names identified in this document the list of original partners reads: Alexandre le Riche de Vandy; Jacques Florent Robillard; Pierre Antoine Robillard; Jean Baptiste Caruel; Jacques Marie Chapelain; Charles Biancour; Étienne Carvoisin; and Joseph François Augustin Monneron. All names appear on official documents we have identified and discussed. Other partners still to be identified may exist.
Commentary and Conclusion
We shall examine François Augustin Monneron’s role in the foundation of the Géricault family tobacco enterprise elsewhere in due course. Suffice to say, for the moment, that Monneron’s name on the marriage contract uniting the Biancour and Carvoisin families, and the fact that all concerned are identified as partners in the same enterprise, explains, in part, some of the confusion regarding the Monneron family’s activities at the Hôtel de Longueville after 1791. François Augustin Monneron competed against Jean Marie Détailleur for the right to lease the Hôtel de Longueville in the auction held in September, 1791, a battle Détailleur won. Discovering Monneron’s name as one of the partners in the tobacco enterprise at the maison Longueville in 1794 suggests we have more to learn.
Charles Biancour, as we intimated, is more than a minor figure in Géricault scholarship for reasons we shall explore at greater length elsewhere. We can assume Charles Biancour had some contact with the founding partners before or after 1791 in order to become a partner in the tobacco enterprise. The most likely candidate for this role seems to be Augustin Monneron, based on Biancour’s work with the Monnerons in the Indian Ocean. Biancour remained close to Géricault’s Robillard relations during the years which followed and this early partnership in the original tobacco concern may have been the foundation for this relationship. We shall explore this, Alexandrine Modeste de Saint Martin, and other related matters in issues to come.