BOIGNE Benoît de (EN)

Biographical Article

The works devoted to Benoît de Boigne (1751-1830) are already quite dated. They agree in retracing, often emphatically, the rise of this “nabob from Savoy" (Sentis G., 1989), who acquired military glory and fortune thanks to an "extraordinary adventure in India" (catalogue, 1996) before becoming a notable and benefactor of his hometown, Chambéry.

A Colourful Journey

His original name, which he himself changed to de Boigne, was Leborgne. He was born in 1751 as the son of a fur trader in Chambéry, in the kingdom of Sardinia. In 1768, he enlisted in the Clare regiment of the Irish Brigade of the French army, with which he traveled to Île de France (Mauritius). After his return to France, he resigned. He then joined the Russian army in the eastern Mediterranean. Captured by the Turks in 1774, he was soon after released. In 1777, he was in Alexandria and embarked for India. Arriving in Madras, he enlisted in a native infantry regiment of the East India Company, from which he resigned a few years later. He went to Lucknow, and then entered the service of Mahaji Sindhia, who was then a key figure in the political scene of Hindustan.

In the Service of Mahaji Sindhia

Sindhia instructed him to form regiments, then brigades. The armies commanded by de Boigne on behalf of the Marathi chief contributed to consolidating and extending the latter's power in northern India.

In exchange for his services, de Boigne received land as a tax concession. He generated large surpluses and entered the indigo trade. He traded with Marathi princes and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II himself, receiving such prestigious titles as "Pillar of the Empire".

In 1794, Sir John MacGregor Murray asked him to intervene with Sindhia so that the Taj Mahal would be kept in good condition. The two men exchanged several letters on this subject (British Library, OIOC, IOR/H/388). De Boigne is often presented as having worked on the restoration of the famous mausoleum, but this detail seems somewhat exaggerated. Shortly thereafter, Sindhia died. De Boigne put himself at the service of his heir, Daulat Rao, before leaving India for health reasons (1795).

An Eminent Figure in the City of Chambéry

He left with his Indian wife, Nur Begum, and their two children, Banu Jan and Ali Baksh, with whom he settled in England. After baptism, they took the names Helen, Ann Elizabeth, and Charles-Alexandre. While continuing to provide for their needs, de Boigne married Adèle d'Osmond, daughter of French emigrants, in 1798. The couple moved to Paris in 1802, but the marriage was unhappy.

From 1807, de Boigne returned to Savoy and resided at the Château de Buisson-Rond, near Chambéry. He received honorary distinctions from the kings of France and Sardinia. Having become a count, he was appointed lieutenant-general of the armies of the King of Sardinia. He was one of the great notables of Savoy. He acquired several properties in Chambéry and the surrounding area, while allowing the city to benefit from his fortune through civil, charitable and pious donations. He died in 1830, with Charles-Alexandre as his heir. A few years later, a fountain was erected in his honour in Chambéry. Known as the Fountain of the Elephants, it has become an iconic landmark of the city.

The Collection

The category of "adventurer" describes a group of individuals who, having traveled to India to make their fortunes at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, served the Compagnie française des Indes or became affiliated with the East India Company or Indian rulers. Many of these adventurers were also collectors, as was the case with Benoît de Boigne. The originality of his collection compared to others assembled around the same time lies in the quantity and the nature of the weapons that it brought together, thus offering an interesting reflection of his career in the subcontinent.

Europeans who settled in India frequently acquired miniatures. These included works commissioned from Indian artists, illustrating subjects such as castes, occupations, deities, religious festivals, means of transport and architecture. The collection of de Boigne included an incomplete series of Vishnu incarnations, female portraits, and genre scenes, painted in the style of the Lucknow school, as well as works of a different style, made in South India, probably in Tanjore (L’Extraordinaire aventure de Benoît de Boigne, p. 125-126). To this set are added a Plan du Taj Mahal and a Vue du mausolée d’Humayun, two watercolors on paper from the end of the 18th century. These are close to a pictorial genre in vogue in British India at the beginning of the 19th century, the "Company Paintings" representing the Mughal monuments of Delhi, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri.

The collection also includes carpets, precious textile articles, and objects in gold, silver or ivory (hookahs, spice boxes, rose water sprinklers, betel sets, etc.). These objects are representative of the way of life of Europeans in 18th-century India, who appropriated and sought to reproduce the luxury and refinement of the princely courts and Mughal nobles.

De Boigne possessed many finely crafted weapons: swords, sabres, daggers, daggers, axes, shields, bows, guns, and muskets. He had Indo-Persian weapons, but also, more rarely, weapons from Hindu kingdoms, little represented in European collections from this period (Jasanoff M., 2009, p. 152). Note also the presence of ceremonial objects in the princely courts, such as fly swatters and command staffs. All these objects indicate the eminent position acquired by the Savoyard commander on the military and political scene of India at the end of the 18th century.

He returned to Europe with all of his possessions, traveling with his family on a Danish ship. He disembarked in England, leaving almost all of his personal effects on board. The ship continued on its way, but before arriving in Copenhagen it sank, as did the precious trunks. This loss deeply affected de Boigne, not only because of the monetary worth of his Indian objects, but also because of their value emotionally and symbolically, the fruit and the reflection of his brilliant career. The trunks were finally found at sea, allowing him to recover most of his collection.

In 1863, an exhibition was organised in Chambéry on the occasion of the thirtieth session of the Congrès scientifique de France: the catalog mentions the "collection of weapons and precious objects brought back from India by General Count de Boigne", presented by his grandson, Count Ernest de Boigne (Catalogue de l’exposition d’objets d’art, 1863, p. 33). An exhibition dedicated to Benoît de Boigne, held in 1996 in Chambéry and in Paris, made it possible to make this collection, which had remained in private hands, better known.