BOURBON-CONDÉ Louis Henri de (EN)
Biographical article
Louis Henri was born in 1692, and was the grandson of Louis XIV (1638–1715) and Madame de Montespan (1640–1707) through his mother; as the son of Louis III de Bourbon (1643–1709), who briefly held the title of Prince de Condé from 1709 to 1710, he was the heir to one of the most important French dynasties. Like his father, he took the title of Monsieur le Duc. As the Grand Master of France and Governor of Burgundy, like his ancestors, he married his first cousin, Marie-Anne de Bourbon, called Mademoiselle de Conti (1666–1720), who died prematurely in 1720 and left him a certain number of Asian objects (AN (French national archives), X/1A/ 9158). As head of the Council of Regency during the minority of Louis XV (1710–1774), he acquired considerable wealth through speculation in the East India Company, run by the Scotsman John Law (1671–1729). Upon the Regent’s death in 1723, he was appointed Prime Minister to the young Louis XV. His ministership was a relative failure, even though he successfully negotiated the marriage with Marie Leszczynska (1703–1768), for which the Queen was ever grateful. Given the unpopularity of the introduction of the Cinquantième (one fiftieth) property tax, and the poor harvests that resulted in a hike in bread prices, and faced with the opposition of the Court and the powerful Cardinal of Fleury (1653–1743), the King’s Preceptor, and the disastrous reputation resulting from his affair with the Marquise de Prie (1671–1729), the Duke was removed and replaced by Fleury. At the age of thirty-four, he was disgraced, and, like his predecessors, he was exiled to his estate at Chantilly. Here, he devoted himself to completing pharaonic projects. He had entrusted the architect Jean Aubert (circa 1680–1741), the pupil of Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646–1708), with updating—between 1718 and 1721—the western and eastern wings of the Grand Château, with the installation of an imperial stairway, harmonising the façades, and creating a monumental door with a fronton. The Prince’s apartments, now called the Grands Apartments, created in the Petit Château, were also refurbished. They were fitted with fashionable white and gold panelling, forming one of the most significant and coherent ensembles at the beginning of the rocaille style in France (circa 1718–1720). They were complemented in 1737 with paintings by Christophe Huet (1700–1759) devoted to the theme of the monkey, an exotic animal associated with an interest in Asia, and chinoiserie, which adorned the cabinet, subsequently called the ‘Grande Singerie’. Two years earlier, the same animal painter had decorated the ‘Petite Singerie’ in the ground-floor apartments. The main project undertaken by the Prince was that of the Grandes Écuries—implemented by Jean Aubert between 1719 and 1735—, an enormous building that faced the forest of Chantilly, where the Prince indulged in his passion for hunting with hounds. He also finished the arrangement of the gardens, creating new areas of greenery complemented by games in the Petit Parc. On several occasions these festivities were attended by the royal couple. In 1728, Louis-Henri married Caroline de Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg (1714–1741)—the daughter of the landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg (1684–1749)—, who bore him a son, Louis Joseph, the future and eighth Prince de Condé. He died in 1740.
The collection
A collector of precious objects, Louis Henri was also very interested in the sciences and chemistry. He established several manufactories, designed to satisfy this interest and his taste for Far-Eastern works. These manufactories were prestigious facilities, as well as a means to reduce foreign imports. The production of lacquers created on his initiative imitated the Chinese and Japanese productions. No object produced by this manufactory has yet been identified. When the Prince died, there was a ‘room called Hotel Péquin’ on the ground floor of the Grand Château (AMC, 2 A 055, fol. 394), not far from the ‘chemistry laboratory’ and the ‘crystal room’. This room housed lacquer objects from Chantilly (for example: low ‘cupboards (…) whose sides are in varnished and gilt wood with Chinese figures’). His post-death inventory mentions a Japanese lacquer chest, which is still held in the Musée Condé (MCCC inventory no. OA 1798), which came from his collection. The chest is decorated with hens and roosters and dates from the Edo period (circa 1675). The second manufactory produced painted or Indian canvases that imitated Asian textiles. In 1735, Jean-Antoine Fraisse (1680–1739?), a ‘canvas painter’ who worked at the manufactory of painted canvases, dedicated the Book of Chinese Drawings based on originals works from Persia, the Indies, China, and Japan to the prince. Fifty-eight engraved plates portrayed Chinese- and Japanese-inspired figures and floral motifs: they were intended to provide models for the workers in the manufactory of painted canvases, as well as for the third manufactory established in Chantilly by Louis Henri, which produced soft porcelain. Established circa 1725 by Cicaire Cirou, it was granted a royal privilege in 1735 to produce porcelain that imitated Japanese porcelain. It was inspired by Japanese and Chinese porcelain objects owned by the prince and produced articles in the Kakiemonstyle. Little is known about the supply networks of Louis Henri, Prince de Condé. He very likely bought objects from Parisian dealers. For example, on 18 June 1708, a certain Mouchet, ‘a Palace dealer’, delivered, at a cost of twenty-six livres and ten sols, ‘two ancient white porcelain pagodas (…) since then taken to Escouen’ (MCCC, 2/AB/227, Fol. 831, article 278). The Prince’s post-death inventory, drawn up by Thomas Joachim Hébert (1687–1773), a dealer on the Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, listed almost 1,700 porcelain objects, including a large number of Asian articles. This list included many celadons ‘from the ancient lands of the Indies’, Chinese porcelain (in China white or coloured—yellow, green, etc.), and Japanese porcelain (‘ancient Japanese porcelain decorated with dragons’). Amongst these objects, some of which were mounted, were several cabarets, as well as vases, potpourri vases, tobacco pots, fountains, girandoles, and decorative figures, such as pagodas or different kinds of animals (‘Two very small ancient Japanese coloured porcelain turtles surrounded by small pagodas made from the same porcelain’; ‘Two Chinese porcelain leopards siting on their porcelain bases’). The inventory also mentions a large number of lacquer objects (almost 112), mainly in Japanese lacquer (red or black, adorned with gilt reliefs), including a majority of boxes, as well as cabarets, plateaux, centrepieces, desks, and commodes (furnishing, in particular, the Galerie des Batailles). Likewise, there are Chinee lard stone objects (‘two lard stone teapots’; ‘two small square Indies lard stone liqueur seals decorated with moulded gilt bronze’). Amongst the objects that have survived, are ‘two pairs of square-sided Japanese porcelain vases, decorated with flowers and birds’, dating from around 1690–1700 (MLVE, inventory nos. OA 5490 and 5491); two pairs of square and round Chinese porcelain vases, with pagodas in relief, from the K’ang-hi era (CDFC, inventory nos. F 1384 C. 1 and 1388 C. 1 and 2); a pair of Fo dogs (CDFC, inventory nos. F 1736 C. 1 and 2) and ‘a large cornet made from ancient blue and white gilt porcelain with a sort of cage in the middle’ (CDPA, inventory nos. 1855 and 1896); and ‘two medium-sized coloured porcelain urns with their lids: one made from ancient Japanese porcelain and the other from Chantilly porcelain’ (MCC, OA 1031 and 1032).
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