Musée Français – J. B. Caruel
Géricault Life
Inventaire après la décès de Jean-Baptiste Caruel de Saint-Martin (detail), 19 July, 1847. Image courtesy of the Archives Nationales (France) MC/ET/LIV/1450
Jean-Baptiste Caruel, Théodore Géricault’s maternal uncle, was a member of France’s nobility when he died in his Paris hotel on the rue d’université on July 7, 1847. In 1807, Jean-Baptiste Caruel married a young woman named Alexandrine-Modeste de Saint-Martin. Alexandrine-Modeste’s grandfather Didier de Saint-Martin provided Théodore’s upwardly mobile uncle with the pedigree of nobility, which eventually helped pave the way for Jean-Baptiste Caruel’s ennoblement during the Bourbon restoration on January 21, 1818. In 1972, we learned that Alexandrine-Modeste de Saint-Martin gave birth to Théodore Géricault’s only child, a son, in August of 1818. That fact remained a closely-guarded family secret.
Under the terms of the marriage contract uniting the very wealthy Jean-Baptiste Caruel with the relatively impoverished Alexandrine-Modeste de Saint-Martin of 1807, upon his death the bulk of Jean-Baptiste’s estate would go to the children of their union. The inventaire after his death of July 19th, 1847, includes a section identifying those parts of his estate which Jean-Baptiste Caruel de Saint-Martin left to his widow Alexandrine-Modeste de Saint-Martin. Whilst all parts of this inventaire are of interest, our particular concern here is with the section confiirming the connection between the engravings produced and sold by Théodore Géricault’s relations by marriage Louis Robillard de Peronville and Pierre Laurent for the Musée français during the years 1803 to 1809 with Géricault and with key individuals in the artist’s life.
Bequeathed to Madame Veuve Caruel
Inv. J-B Caruel de Saint-Martin (detail). Image courtesy of the Archives Nationales (France) MC/ET/LIV/1450
Item 288. – Four Volumes of the Musée Français
The reference connecting Jean-Baptiste and Alexandrine-Modeste Caruel de Saint-Martin to the Musée français is explicit and appears in the section titled “…Bibliothèque léguée aussi à Mad. Ve. Caruel…” (library bequeathed also to Madame widow Caruel) – “…Four volumes in octavo, the Musée français Edition Robillard of mil huit cent trois…, engravings before the letter valued at nine hundred francs – 900.”
Inv. J-B Caruel de Saint-Martin (detail). Image courtesy of the Archives Nationales (France) MC/ET/LIV/1450
The value of the four volumes far exceeds that of many other items listed in the inventaire. (I will have more to say on valuations and related topics elsewhere.) The documentary evidence in the inventaire, however, is clear: at the time of his death Jean-Baptiste Caruel de Saint-Martin owned a complete four-volume bound set of the orignal 1803 Robillard de Peronville and Laurent engravings, avant la lettre, the highest quality option and twice the price of engravings ‘after the letter.’
The actual significance of this set of high-quality engravings in Jean-Baptiste Caruel de Saint-Martin’s library in Paris and his bequest to his somewhat estranged widow Alexandrine-Modeste dwelling in the family estate in Chesnay near Versailles are topics worth investigating in their own right.
Théodore Géricault family members close to the artist had an active interest in the success of the Musée français. We shall continue our discussion of Géricault’s connections with the community of artists involved in the production of the Musée français in the weeks to come.