LAGRENÉ Théodose de (EN)

Théodose de Lagrené joined the Affaires étrangères in 1822 becoming Sécrétaire d’ambassade in Saint Petersburg and then ministre plénipotentiare in Greece. He married Countess Daubensky while in Russia, who was the former maid of honor to the Empress of Russia. They had a son, Edmond, who would also pursue a diplomatic career like his father. Théodose de Lagrené was then appointed Commandant de la Légion d’Honneur on October 20, 1842. From 1843 to 1846, he led a mission to China organized by both the Ministère de la Marine and the Affaires étrangères. He was later appointed Grand Officier on July 8, 1846 (AN, LH//1443/11). Following the coup of December 2, 1849 he retired from political life and became a member of the board of directors of the Chemin de fer du Nord. He died on April 27, 1862 (Bensacq-Tixier N. 2003, p.345).

The Chinese Mission

After the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing between Great Britain and China on August 26, 1842, Louis-Philippe’s France wished to obtain the same arrangements, especially the opening of new Chinese ports for French trade. François Guizot’s (1787-1874) government decided to send a mission organized by both the Ministère de la Marine and the Affaires étrangères. The first of this duo, ordered Captain Jean-Baptiste Cécille (1786-1873) to visit the French outposts in the China Sea, while François Guizot instructed Albert Philibert Dubois de Jancigny (1795-1860) to obtain information on China and British India’s trade. He made himself available to the Ministre d’Agriculture et du Commerce to research any French commercial interests. After the first, somewhat disorganized contacts, Louis-Philippe (1773-1850) decided to send an embassy to China, led by Théodose de Lagrené (1800-1862).

On December 12th, 1843, the embassy set sail on the frigate La Sirène from Brest, and after sailing the usual route via Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in Macau harbor on August 13, 1844. The ambassador was accompanied by ten people including Charles de Montigny (1805-1868), later consul in Shanghai and Ningbo, and Jules Itier (1802-1877), Inspecteur des Finance who was appointed as head of the trade mission. The latter was very successful in China due to use of daguerreotype. Their interpreter was Father Joseph-Marie Callery (1810-1862) who was living in Macao as interpreter for the French consul, Comte de Ratti-Menton who arrived in 1842. Having left Brest in February 1844 aboard the Archimède, a steamship and maiden voyage via the coasts of Europe and Africa to the Cape of Good Hope, the commercial delegates arrived in Macao on August 24, 1844, accompanied by the second secrétaire de l’ambassade. This mission was appointed by the Ministère de l’Agriculture following a meeting of the chambers of commerce involved, and included: Auguste Haussmann (1815-1874) for the cotton industry, Natalis Rondot (1821- 1900) for the wool, cloth and champagne industry, Isidore Hedde (1801-1880) for the silk and silk manufacturers industry and Édouard Renard (1812-1898) for the so-called articles of Paris.

Negotiations with Chinese representative Qi-ying (1790-1858) led to the "ten thousand year commercial treaty between China and France", signed on October 24, 1844 at Whampoa, near Canton, aboard the Archimedes. It stipulated the opening of five ports to French trade, Canton [Guangzhou], Fou-Tchou [Fuzhou], Amouï [Xiamen], Ning-Po [Ningbo] and Chang-haï [Shanghai] as well as giving the right to missionaries to propagate the Catholic faith. Given long delays in writing the final draft of the treaty between France and China, the mission was allowed to prospect in China for two periods separated by the trip to Manila and South-East Asia. In the fall of 1844, the delegation travelled in between Macau and Canton [Guangzhou]. They even spent a week in the outer city of Canton which was the only one accessible to foreigners. They visited Chinese businesses and workshops of the area that neighbored thirteen international factories. During the following year, in the fall of 1845, the mission was able to visit three of the four newly opened ports, Amoi [Xiamen], Ning-po [Ningbo] and Chang-haï [Shanghai] as well as two cities renowned for silk industry (Suzhou and Zhangzhou). The exchange of ratifications finally took place in Pantang near Canton [Guangzhou], on December 31, 1845.

Théodose de Lagrené and the diplomats returned via the Suez route, while the commercial attachés travelled via the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in France on May 16, 1846 with all that had been collected in Asia.

A mission with various objectives

Primarily diplomatic, the members of the trade mission were in fact responsible for collecting various samples of commercial interest during their stopovers, with a particular focus while in China. They investigated Macao and Canton in which they wrote the Étude pratique du commerce d’exportation de la Chine, which was updated by Natalis Rondot and published in Paris, Canton and Batavia in 1849. They studied all the raw materials available as well as Chinese industry. They mentioned objects made of jade and precious that were sold on Physic Street in Canton, the sculpted rhinoceros horns or the lacquerware on New China Street. They were interested in paintings and commented that "There are many workshops in Canton and Macao where people paint on marrow paper" (Hedde I., Renard E., Haussmann A. and Rondot N., Étude Practice of China's Export Trade, p.176) and they note that “The Europeans demand the various processes of Chinese agriculture and industry. The Delegates were the first who thought of giving this impetus, and they were able to obtain and bring back a very remarkable collection of industrial watercolor and line drawings, valuable both for their novelty and their usefulness” (Hedde I., Renard E., Haussmann A. and Rondot N., Practical Study of China's Export Trade, p. 176). For the line drawings, "it is to M. Hedde, Renard and N. Rondot that the painters of Canton owe their progress in this kind of drawing, and it is under the direction of these three Delegates that Ting-qua and You-qua created their Celestial Empire industrial and agricultural processes. They sell for 75 cents a dowen, but usually the drawings are bound in volumes, elegantly covered with brocaded silk crepe in the color of ponceau, and each volume, which contains 120 drawings, costs 7 piastres” (Hedde I., Renard E., Haussmann A. and Rondot N., Practical Study of China's Export Trade, p. 177).

The oil paintings are on cotton and represent “views of Chinese dwellings (interior and exterior)” and are worth, when “framed in yellow wood”, 4 to 5 piastres.” There is however Chinese painter in Canton, named Kwan Kiu Cheong 關喬昌, better known under the name of Lam Qua 林官(1801-1860), who is a pupil of the distinguished English painter Georges Chinnery (1774-1852), who was renowned for the remarkable resemblance of his portraits, which cost 20 piastres for small sizes. Some pupils of the painters Youqua and Tingqua acquire a certain skill for nature. Their paintings sold for 6, 8 and 10 piastres” (Hedde I., Renard E., Haussmann A. and Rondot N., Practical study of the Chinese export trade, p. 177). Then they describe their two-floored workshops, where the work was organized according to method and division of labor.

Jules Itier reports: "There is, in Old China Street, a shop most renowned for its gouache paintings on so-called rice paper, as well as for the line drawings and oil paintings that they make. I use this word because it is more of a factory than an atelier of the famous Yom-qua [sic]” (Hedde I., 1848, vol. II, p. 17). The various members of the delegation made multiple acquisitions and orders at this factory.

Objects from the Chinese Mission

Upon their return, the objects brought back by the delegates were displayed in several exhibitions organized in Paris in 1846, in Lyon in 1847, in Saint-Étienne in 1848 and in Nîmes in 1849. Depending on their nature, the objects were distributed by the le ministère de l’Agriculture et du Commerce among the various national institutions and chambers of commerce. Some examples include: what was pertinent to the silk industry went to the Chambre de Commerce de Lyon and is now in the Musée des Tissus - Musée des Arts décoratifs de Lyon. With albums of watercolors and many line drawings on marrow of oeschynomene paludosa that were specially ordered by trade commissioners at the workshops of Yeou-Kwa [Youqua], Tin-Kwa [Tingqua] or Sunkwa [Sunqua] of Canton, but also some paintings representing the industry of Ning -po, as well as textile samples (Privat-Savigny, 2009). Le Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Paris received the samples of natural materials. We find musée d’art et d’industrie de Saint-Étienne, as mentioned by Isidore Hedde, models of Chinese looms and objects related to textile (ribbons, sample cards, fabrics) . The Musée de Sèvres obtained ceramics on January 10, 1849, at the request of Mr. Edelman, administrator of the factory (At the dawn of Japanism, 2017, cat. no 18). The Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers received 68 lots, technical works, tools and models of weaving looms. The Cabinet des Estampes of the National Library received more than 100 albums, including 30 from the Youqua workshop. The Ministre de l’Agriculture et du Commerce, Louis Buffet (1818-1899), decided to find a permanent location for the objects which "encumbered [his] desk" and offered them to the director of the National Museums, Alfred Jeanron (1808-1877), in a letter preserved in the archives of the National Museums on March 17, 1849: “The commercial mission to China of 1843, returning in 1846, brought back numerous samples of both natural and manufactured products. These products were publicly exhibited and visited by a large number of manufacturers, industrialists, merchants and artists. With the aim to find them a definitive space in which they would be most useful as well as insuring their preservation, I have conceived the idea of ​​distributing them according to their specialty in our various national museums. There they can be seen and examined and the industrialist, the artist and the craftsman, can be inspired by their form and their design either to imitate them with a view to exporting, or to modify our own goods. Among the objects that make up this vast collection, there are some which, having more especially a character of ethnological or industrial curiosity, seemed to me to be able to take their place in the Museum entrusted to your direction. They are generally d’ajustement et d’armement, intricate objects in ivory, lacquer or sandalwood, some bronzes and maps, colored images and paintings” (AN, series EM, 4698).

The accompanying list of objects delivered to the Louvre on March 1, 1849 describes 772 objects referenced under 305 numbers, and classified under the following headings: bronze and copper; cutlery and tools; musical instruments; walking sticks; pipes and umbrellas; weapons; armor and clothing; adornments and ornaments; tools; clothing; furnishing objects [armchairs, combs, bags, compasses, pair of glasses, etc., and a set of Chinese-made European cards]; toys; bamboo [and various woods]; Chinese lacquerware; Japanese lacquerware; sandalwood; tortoiseshell; mother-of-pearl; silver; ivories; jades; rare stones; pagodites; soapstones; papers and colors; paintings; paint rollers; wallpapers; and paint rollers for wall hangings. This rather ethnographic collection covers all aspects of Chinese daily life in the regions visited by the trade delegation. The exception being objects from the industrial activities particularly the production of silk, samples of which were sent to other institutions. It also contains a few objects from Japan, sold in Canton, or from Cochinchina. These are in the Musée de Marine and then relocated to the Louvre.

There currently remains quite a few objects described in this list at the Musée National de la Marine; probably a little over 30 and a few others that have yet to be identified. Recently rediscovered are No. 3 from March 1, 1849 list that is one of the two "suspended bells with a richly carved wooden foot" and among the ivories, No. 214, a " lace openwork fan with very rich figures and flowers”. An object was returned in 2009 from Brest where it had been stored the Cercle Navale in 1926 (being the only survivor of the bombardments of the Second World War) and corresponds to No. 12 of the 1849 list. It is an incense burner in “copper, with an open lid, animals forming handles, and three legs on a pedestal”, but the pedestal, which must have been made of wood, has disappeared. Among the rolls of "painting for hangings" preserved, No. 264 is a "map of China with a celestial hemisphere"; No. 265, "a map of Canton, city and province"; No. 278, two "Chinese caricatures of Englishmen disembarking from a steamboat"; No. 279, four painted rolls of different formats representing "Women of Soutchou, elegant city of China..."; No. 286, "Capture of Chusan by the English" ( Lacambre G., 2008).

There are 25 Chinese oil paintings on cotton canvas on the list (one of which was sent to the Ministère de la Marine in 1922, has not been found), but two of a smaller format with very simple Chinese frames are still in the Musée National de la Marine : No. 258, "Fisherman's Wife" and No. 260, "Portrait of the Interpreter (young Malay) of the Trade Delegation in China of the Ministry of Commerce". While anonymous, they can be attributed to the portrait painter Lam Qua (Lacambre G., 2008). Among 18 of them are "oil paintings of Chinese interiors, large landscapes, gardens, games and musicians in their wooden frames that were made in China" corresponding to No. 256. One has not been found, the other seventeen were stored in La Rochelle in 1923. They are still in the collections of the Musées d’art et d’histoire de La Rochelle with no. 259, a “portrait of Ky-ing, Viceroy of Canton, Signatory of the Treaty of France with China”. This painting bears the signature in light blue and in European letters of "Youqua" in the lower right corner and with a label printed in English ("Youqua Painter - Old Street No 34") that is also on the back of several 17 other paintings, unquestionably from the same studio. These 18 paintings, left in a pile in a stockroom, were taken out of anonymity in 2005 and restored (De Couleurs et d’Encre, 2015, cat. no. 1 to 18). It seems that these paintings were exhibited in Saint-Étienne in 1848 with this description: "Views and Costumes of Macao, Pictures Painted in Oil and On Canvas by Chinese, in the European Manner" (Hedde, 1848 , no. 1069).

Other objects were stored in La Rochelle in 1923, such as two ivory seals corresponding to the description of No. 226 of the 1849 list. They are "spherical, one with concentric balls, and one with interior movable nails" , a Japanese bowl with a dark green lid and gold lacquer, with a red interior (A l'aube du japonisme, 2017, Cat. No 20), was the same model as one brought back by Admiral Cécille, and stored at Brest. There is also a sculpted rhinoceros horn (no. 171) in La Rochelle.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brest received three business card holders in sandalwood (no. 194), mother-of-pearl (no. 204) and carved ivory (no. 215 or 216) on loan in 1924. The Musée du quai Branly — Jacques Chirac received two of the six ivory “paper knives” [paper cutter] (No 220) and a large snuff box with four lacquer drawers with floral decoration in colored mother-of-pearl, and made in Japan (no. 283), (A l’aube du Japonisme, 2017, Cat. No. 21), deposited at the Musée de l’Homme in 1946. It is similar to the one brought back from Canton by Admiral Cécille, that is now in the Brest Museum of Fine Arts. Many other objects remain to be identified, including musical instruments, that belong the Lagrené mission and Charles de Montigny collections that were stored at the Musée de l'Homme in La Rochelle (currently at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac).