Augustin Blondel De Gagny
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Augustin Blondel de Gagny (; March 1695 – 9 July 1776) was a French
connoisseur A connoisseur ( French traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts; who is a keen appreciator ...
of the arts and a collector whose series of Paris auction sales, which took place soon after his death were high-water marks of the history of collecting in 18th-century France. Paintings and sculptures that passed through Blondel de Gagny's collection are dispersed in many of the world's great museums. The prints from his collection are less easily traced.


Biography

His father, Joseph Blondel, was ''conseiller'' and general treasurer at the
Bâtiments du roi The Bâtiments du Roi (, "King's Buildings") was a division of the Maison du Roi ("King's Household") in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris. History The Bâtiments ...
, the establishment in charge of building and maintaining the royal buildings and parks. Joseph purchased the château de Gagny from its Billy heirs in 1706; though it was purchased by the creditors of his estate in 1716, Augustin Blondel de Gagny retained its name. Augustin married Marguerite-Henriette Barbier, who predeceased him. Due in part to the confidence in his competence shown by
Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville, comte d'Arnouville, seigneur de Garge et de Gonesse, was born in Paris on 13 December 1701 and died on 12 July 1794 in a French Revolutionary prison. He was a French statesman, son of Louis Charles Machault ...
, from 1750 Augustin Blondel held the post of general treasurer of the ''Caisse des Amortissements'' that was intended to pay down the king's debts and from April 1752 that of supervisor of the
Menus-Plaisirs du Roi The Menus-Plaisirs du Roi () was, in the organisation of the French royal household under the Ancien Régime, the department of the Maison du Roi responsible for the "lesser pleasures of the King", which meant in practice that it was in charge of a ...
, responsible for ephemeral decorations for all the fêtes of the court of Louis XVI. Part of his duties that must have been pleasant was the supervision of the Opera, for Blondel loved music: the Stradivarius violin "the best known by this master" according to the sale catalogue, which he kept in his little château at Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val d'Oise), was bought at the sale by Paillet, for 601 ''livres''; there were several other violins as well. In 1759 he took up residence in his late father's ''
hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side an ...
'' in Place Louis le Grand (
Place Vendôme The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is ...
). There his collection of paintings and works of art was among the most visited and commented upon in Paris, after those of the princes. He had made his first public purchases at the sale of the comtesse de Verrue, 1737. By 1745 his place among the most selective collectors was well established: when the ''
marchand-mercier A ''marchand-mercier'' is a French term for a type of entrepreneur working outside the guild system of craftsmen but carefully constrained by the regulations of a ''corporation'' under rules codified in 1613. The reduplicative term literally mean ...
'' Gersaint returned with paintings he had bought at The Hague, he went first to his patron, Blondel de Gagny, who selected from Gersaint's offerings a Nicolaes Berghem. Among the very few views of a French 18th-century collector's interior, to show how paintings were hung, is
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, also Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin, (Paris, 14 April 1724 - Paris, 14 February 1780) was a French draftsman, printmaker, etcher and painter. Biography His brothers Charles Germain de Saint Aubin and Augustin de Saint-A ...
's drawing of Blondel de Gagny's ''cabinet intérieure'' part of the suite of rooms in which his collection was displayed, filling the walls to the cornice but carefully balanced, repeatedly creating pendants and contrasts. Setting off the gilding of frames and the dark patination of bronze statuettes and the white of small marbles, green damask that
Hester Thrale Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi (née Salusbury; later Piozzi; 27 January 1741 or 16 January 1740 – 2 May 1821),Contemporary records, which used the Julian calendar and the Annunciation Style of enumerating years, recorded her birth as 16 January ...
noticed covered the walls in at least one of the salons. Of the rich furnishings, by ''
ébéniste ''Ébéniste'' () is a loanword (from French) for a cabinet-maker, particularly one who works in ebony. Etymology and ambiguities As opposed to ''ébéniste'', the term ''menuisier'' denotes a woodcarver or chairmaker in French. The English equiva ...
s'' of the calibre of
Bernard II van Risamburgh Bernard II van Risamburgh, sometimes Risen Burgh (working by c 1730 — before February 1767) was a Parisian ''ébéniste'' of Dutch and French extraction, one of the outstanding cabinetmakers working in the Rococo style. "Bernard II's furniture is ...
, little has been securely identified, not even Blondel de Gagny's gilt-bronze cartel clock by
Charles Cressent Charles Cressent (1685–1768) was a French furniture-maker, sculptor and fondeur-ciseleur of the régence style. As the second son of François Cressent, sculpteur du roi, and grandson of Charles Cressent, a furniture-maker of Amiens, who also ...
a Rococo sculptural composition surmounted by Father Time with his scythe. Blondel was one of the first to revive the taste for the Baroque furniture of André-Charles Boulle; a medal cabinet by Boulle of the familiar design delivered to Louis XIV is already described in the hôtel in 1766 and by the time of his death fully twenty armoires, commodes and tables attributed to the great Boulle or his sons figured in the sale catalogue. There were Chinese lacquer cabinets and boxes, Chinese and Japanese porcelains and those of
Vincennes Vincennes (, ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is next to but does not include the Château de Vincennes and Bois de Vincennes, which are attached ...
and
Sèvres Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known for i ...
, bronzes and marbles, bronze fire dogs and chimney garnitures by Coustou and Auguste— and 17 fine clocks. Augustin Blondel de Gagny's own refined taste in paintings ran to Flemish and Dutch
old master In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...
s of the 17th and 18th century (a
Van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh c ...
''Young Man Playing a Lute'',
Gabriel Metsu In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር ...
, Nicolaes Berghem,
Philips Wouwerman Philips Wouwerman (also Wouwermans) (24 May 1619 (baptized) – 19 May 1668) was a Dutch painter of hunting, landscape and battle scenes. Life and work Philips Wouwerman was one of the most versatile and prolific artists of the Dutch Golden ...
,
David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile arti ...
' ''Prodigal Son''), Among his French paintings were
Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...
's ''Nourriture de Jupiter'' and
Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...
's ''View of the Campo Vaccino'', and a port capriccio, all now at the Louvre. His ''
cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...
'', distributed among eleven rooms of the hôtel, was also celebrated for the number and quality of the small bronze sculptures interspersed with porcelains on tables and commodes and chimneypieces. There were the reductions of famous antiquities that would be expected, the usual paired bronze ''Enlèvement'' groups after
Giambologna Giambologna (1529 – 13 August 1608), also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small ...
and
François Girardon François Girardon (10 March 1628 – 1 September 1715) was a French sculptor of the Louis XIV style or French Baroque, best known for his statues and busts of Louis XIV and for his statuary in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles. Biography ...
, and sculptures by Michel Anguier. Among the refined small bronzes that furnished his apartments was
Robert Le Lorrain Robert Le Lorrain (1666–1743) was a French baroque sculptor who was born in Paris. He was born into a family of bureaucrats, the son of Claude Le Lorrain, a business agent of Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV's Minister of Financ ...
's ''Andromeda'', now at the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
; Le Lorrain's other sculptures in the collection have not been traced: marble busts of a ''Faun'' and a ''Dryad'' and of ''Ganymede'' and ''Flora'' in the staircase, and bronzes ''Air'', ''A Child''and two busts of women . He also purchased the little château de Garges which he rebuilt in neoclassical taste by
Pierre Contant d'Ivry Pierre Contant d'Ivry (11 May 1698 in Ivry-sur-Seine – 1 October 1777 in Paris), was a French architect and designer working in a chaste and sober Rococo style and in the ''goût grec'' phase of early Neoclassicism. Early career An ''Architecte ...
; it was modified in the 19th century and has been demolished. By terms of his will (9 July 1776) the collection was sold to provide capital for his grandchildren. The sum of 405,741 ''livres'' was raised by the series of auctions. Louis XVI himself was among the purchasers. Further works of art from his collection appeared in sales of October and November 1783 of his only son, Barthélemy-Augustin Blondel d'Azincourt (1719— 1783), who bought in at the sales a portion of his father's collection.Bailey 1987:435.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blondel De Gagny, Augustin Art collectors from Paris 1695 births 1776 deaths fr:Portrait de Démocrite