MONIN Ernest (EN)

Biographical article

Ernest Monin was born in Besançon on 13 September 1856. He was the son of Rachel Levy and Louis-Henri Monin, a historian, philologist, and professor of history at the Faculty of Letters in Besançon. He began to study medicine in Besançon’s civil and military hospitals before pursuing his studies at the faculty of medicine in Paris, where he settled.  In 1877, he presented a dissertation devoted to La Pathogénie et l’Étiologie des Oreillons (‘The pathogeny and aetiology of mumps’, Monin, E., 1877).

A specialist in hygiene, he devoted himself to disseminating the subject through many published books. These contained most of the fundamental principles advocated by the public hygiene movement, which was particularly influential at the time. Monin was not only interested in diseases, but also in their prevention via adequate hygiene in housing and public spaces, food, and even the use of certain cosmetic products. The doctor’s works also had an emphatic moralising dimension. Indeed, as underlined by Olivier Faure, disease, from a hygienist standpoint, spread primarily as a result of low morality (1994, p. 113). A good example of the dissemination promoted by Ernest Monin was his Hygiène de la Beauté (‘The hygiene of beauty’) (1886a). This consisted of a collection of cosmetic recipes and principles that needed to be applied, aimed at the female sex and intended to prevent diseases and avoid the ailments of old age. Monin’s writing was not limited to these works. He also published articles in several medical journals, such as the Revue Thérapeutique (Monin, E., 1886b).

Ernest Monin’s hygienist convictions were also reflected in his involvement with the Société Française d’Hygiène, of which he became the Secretary in 1882 (AN LH/1907/46). Olivier Faure linked this association with those in the public hygiene movement known as ‘Pastoriens’ (1994, pp. 177–198). Influenced by the figure of Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), the ‘Pastoriens’ were particularly influential on the political front and advocated a societal project based on pragmatism, mutuality, and foresight. Hence, Monin was a member of organisations such as the Ligue de l’Intérêt Public and the Société de Secours Mutuel des Artistes Lyriques (the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon (MBAAB), no ref.). His political activities also resulted in his election (at an unknown date) as deputy to the Mayor of the third arrondissement of Paris (MBAAB, 931.1.342).

In fact, Monin was not only a member of the Société Française d’Hygiène but also many other associations and learned societies, as attested by the badges, medals, and diplomas held in his collection. These objects also indicate that he regularly took part in the many exhibitions held in the second half of the nineteenth century as a member of the juries and steering committees. He was, for example, a member of the admissions committee of the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris (MBAAB, no ref.). He also represented France on several occasions in exhibitions held abroad. Hence, in 1887, he went to the hygiene exhibition in Warsaw on behalf of the French Ministry of Public Instruction (Monin, E., 1889). His participation the following year in the mineral water jury at the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona (MBAAB, 931.1.363) earned him the distinction of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur from the Ministry of Commerce (AN LH/1907/46). It is also known that Monin (MBAAB, 931.1.363) took part in the French exhibition in Moscow in 1891 and several exhibitions in Vienna (MBAAB, no ref.).

But Ernest Monin’s interests were not restricted to his scientific activities. In fact, he was also a freemason. He attained the rank of Master in 1882 in the Loge L’Amitié (MBAAB, no ref., and 931.1.420). And Monin became involved with the fumistes. This literary and artistic movement was not a unified movement. Rather it comprised an ensemble of groups and initiatives, linked together by well-known figures and a taste for humour and iconoclasm (Grojnowski, D., 1997, p. 47). Ernest Monin was involved from the outset of the movement because he attended soirées held by the Society of the Hydropathes, established in 1878 by the writer Emile Goudeau (1849–1906), the founder and figurehead of Fumisme (Goudeau, E., 1888, p. 194). These frenzied soirées were a testbench for many young authors. They included theatrical events, music, and poetry recitals, and everything was the subject of mockery, starting with oneself. Hence, the fumiste soirées constituted a ‘a melting pot that brought together (...) the schoolboy culture of the students of the Latin Quarter, the studio pleasantries of the School of Fine Arts, the fantasies of the poets, and the first performances of the pupils of the Conservatoire’ (Goudeau, E., 2000, p. 12).

When the Hydropathes disbanded in 1880, Monin took part in the founding of The Hirsutes (Goudeau, E., 2000, p. 375), then joined the Jemenfoutistes in 1884 (Goudeau, E., 2000, p. 524). At the same time, the fumistes, who initially met in the cafés of the Latin Quarter, migrated towards Montmartre and the Chat Noir cabaret founded by Rodolphe Salis (1851–1897) in 1881. Ernest Monin subsequently became the official doctor in these new centres of activity (Goudeau, E., 2000, p. 524). He also contributed to the reviews published by the fumistes, in particular the Chat Noir review, which was put together in the cabaret’s back room. He was the editorial secretary  for the issue of 17 April 1886, with the evocative nickname of ‘Dr Monin dégustateur’ (Oberthür, M., 2007, p. 251).

Little is known about the last years of Ernest Monin’s life, because the available sources are rare as of 1910. In 1913, he was honoured as Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by the Minister of the Interior, for an unknown reason (AN LH/1907/46). He was fifty-eight in 1914, so he was not concerned by the general mobilisation of the army. He is not listed in any of the French Ministry of Armies databases. He died on 18 December 1928 at the age of seventy-two at his home at 12 Boulevard Raspail in Paris (AN LH/1907/46). His holographic will, drafted in 1910, made mention of no living child (MBAAB, no ref.).

The collection

The collection assembled by Ernest Monin comprises around 1,500 objects of diverse origins. The exact period of his life he in which he assembled the collection is unknown and he left no documents that shed light his approach and the provenance of the objects. Hence, all the following remarks are hypotheses based on an analysis of his collection. The two common denominators of the objects are their low commercial value and their small size. Indeed, with the exception of four large Buddhist statues, Ernest Monin’s collection only contained small objects. The latter are varied in nature and provenance, and several ensembles are identifiable. First of all, most of the objects are Western in origin. These are mainly boxes, objects of devotion, jewellery, and small sculptures. There is also an ensemble of medals and badges, most of which are linked to Ernest Monin’s life. Archaeological items have a significant place in the collection. In fact, there is an ensemble of oushebti (little figures or ‘answerers’) and Egyptian amulets, as well as Gallo-Roman statuettes and amulets. The collection also includes a certain number of fake or copied archaeological objects that imitate antique objects and pre-Columbian objects. There are also many extra-European objects. The collection comprises several objects from Mexico, the Congo, and North Africa, as well as an Inuit statuette and a Marquesan earring. China and Japan are the two most represented regions with respectively around forty and thirty objects. With regard to Chinese objects, these are mainly hardstone statuettes that depict figures linked with Taoism. A metal statuette may also represent Guanyin in a white robe. The Japanese objects are mainly small ivory statuettes inspired by netsuke (ornamental togglelike pieces used to attach a medicine box, pipe, or tobacco pouch to the sash of a Japanese man’s traditional dress). Also worthy of note is the presence of a wooden statuette featuring the Yebisu Kami and a ceramic figurine representing an oni demon. The Monin Collection also includes several metal statuettes of Hindu divinities, no doubt domestic altar statuettes, as well as Buddhist statuettes that may originate from the territory of former French Indochina. There are also four wooden Buddhist statues that are about one metre high, including a guardian divinity. Most of the extra-European objects seem to belong to the category of objects produced specifically for the Western market.  

The exact provenance of the objects in the Monin Collection is still uncertain. Many objects from Europe seem to have been brought back to France by Ernest Monin from voyages undertaken as part of scientific trips. As far as extra-Western objects go, nothing suggests that the doctor travelled beyond Europe’s frontiers. It is probably more likely that they were acquired in France, where artefacts from around the world circulated. Hence, Manuel Charpy described Paris as a ‘city at the forefront of modernity and saturated with objects of all provenances and from every era, inspired by fashions, collective passions, and individual adventure’ (2007, p. 105). Likewise, Manuel Charpy underlined the ease with which fake archaeological objects could be procured as well as copies that were produced in significant numbers at the time in the French capital (2007, p. 114).

In its ensemble, the Monin Collection is entirely consistent with the collecting practices of the French bourgeoisie in the second half of the nineteenth century. Monin’s taste for small objects, described as ‘bibelots’ (‘knickknacks’)—which were displayed to visitors in a large glass cabinet (MBAAB, no ref.)—, objects from antiquity, and extra-European societies, perceived at the time as ‘primitive’, perfectly corresponds with Manuel Charpy’s description of the era’s bourgeois collections (2007, pp. 127–128). The presence of Ernest Monin’s many medals and badges also evokes the emergence at the time of a renewed interest in individual biographies and the conservation of objects linked to the various phases of a person’s life  (Charpy M., 2007, p. 109).

A more in-depth analysis of the collection reveals a certain interest in religions. Ernest Monin’s collection also contained polyptychs and Christian crucifixes, and Buddhist, Taoist, Shinto, and Hindu statuettes, and Egyptian oushebti. The doctor’s fascination with religions echoed the development of the secular study of religions during the second half of the nineteenth century. This new discipline was dominated at the time by a comparative approach that sought to identify patterns shared by different belief systems. Monin’s approach is reminiscent—on a more modest level—of that of Emile Guimet (1836–1918) and his museum devoted to world religions. It is also conceivable that the fumiste movement had an influence on Ernest Monin’s collection (Bernadac, A., 2020, p. 111). Indeed, the accumulation of extremely diverse objects was commonly practised by the fumistes, who were close to the movement of the Arts Incohérents (Grojnowski, D., 1997, p. 53). The backroom of the Chat Noir was known for its displays of the most disparate of discoveries (Fanfare, 1882, p. 2).

Upon his death in 1928, Ernest Monin bequeathed his entire collection to the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie in Besançon, where it is still held today.