![Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste, comte de Choiseul-Gouffier](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste%2C_comte_de_Choiseul-Gouffier.jpg)
Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul (27 September 1752,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
– 20 June 1817,
Aix-la-Chapelle), called Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier (), was a French diplomat and aristocrat from the
Gouffier branch of the Choiseul family. A member of the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
, he served as French ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
from 1784 until the fall of the French monarchy and a scholar of
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
.
Biography
Right from his studies at the
collège d'Harcourt
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...
, he had a passion for antiquities. He was particularly marked by frequent meetings with
Jean-Jacques Barthélemy
Jean-Jacques Barthélemy (20 January 1716 – 30 April 1795) was a French scholar who became the first person to decipher an extinct language. He deciphered the Palmyrene alphabet in 1754 and the Phoenician alphabet in 1758.
Early years
Barth ...
, author of ''Voyage d'Anarcharsis'', whom he met at the home of his cousin the
duc de Choiseul {{Unreferenced, date=April 2019
Choiseul is an illustrious noble family from Champagne, France, descendants of the comtes of Langres. The family's head was Renaud III de Choiseul, comte de Langres and sire de Choiseul, who in 1182 married Alix ...
. Another friend was
Talleyrand, with whom he participated in court intrigues and by whom he was dissuaded from taking up the religious life.
In 1776, he left for Greece on board the frigate ''Atalante'', commanded by
Joseph Bernard de Chabert, marquis of
Chabert, who was interested in astronomy. With painters and architects in tow, Choiseul-Gouffier thus visited the south
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...
, the
Cyclades
The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...
and other
Aegean islands, then moved on to
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
. The journey had also had a political goal - explaining the situation in the Aegean between the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia. On his return he published the first volume of his ''Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce'', which was a great success and facilitated his intellectual and political career. He became a member of the
Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions ( epig ...
in 1782, then a member of the Académie française in 1783. He was ambassador to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
from 1784 to 1791, taking advantage of this chance to discover Greece. In Constantinople he gathered about him a semi-formal academy where gentlemen engaged in recording the beauties and treasures of the city gathered.
[ Chantal Grell, "Les ambiguités du philhellenisme: L'ambassade du comte de Choiseul-Gouffier auprès de la sublime porte (1784-1792)" ''Dix-huitième siècle'', 27 (1995) pp 223-235.]
Choiseul-Gouffier visited Athens, where he coveted the
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...
's metopes, obtained a ''firman'', as Elgin did later, to remove antiquities from the Acropolis, and sent to France a part of the Parthenon frieze which was two metres long, and was part of the sculpture collection he bequeathed on his death to the Louvre, where it now resides. His marble bust of Marcus Aurelius, found by the French consul
Louis Fauvel in Attica in 1789, was sold in 1818; it was later acquired by the
Musée du 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 ...
, whilst an ''
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
'' previously owned by him is now in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
The
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
changed the course of his life. Refusing to obey the
Convention, he refused his recall to France for fear of being guillotined. His goods in France were seized and another envoy sent out to replace him. After a year spent under siege in the embassy, Choiseul Gouffier emigrated in 1792 to Russia, where he was named Director of the
Academy of Arts and
Imperial Public Library
The National Library of Russia (NLR, russian: Российская национальная библиотека}), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked amo ...
of Russia. Empress
Catherine the Great
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
became friends with him and gave him lands and a domain in what is now
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
. (His descendants lived in Lithuania until 1945 when, hunted by the Communists, the last of the Choiseul-Gouffiers fled to
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and died there in 1949.)
He only returned to France upon
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's amnesty to exiled nobles at the start of the
First Empire First Empire may refer to:
* First British Empire, sometimes used to describe the British Empire between 1583 and 1783
* First Bulgarian Empire (680–1018)
*First French Empire (1804–1814/1815)
* First German Empire or "First Reich", sometimes u ...
in 1802. Finding his friend Talleyrand, he refused to participate in the government of the Empire, and remained faithful to
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...
. He published the second volume of his ''Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce'' in 1809 and built himself a house imitating the
Erechtheion
The Erechtheion (latinized as Erechtheum /ɪˈrɛkθiəm, ˌɛrɪkˈθiːəm/; Ancient Greek: Ἐρέχθειον, Greek: Ερέχθειο) or Temple of Athena Polias is an ancient Greek Ionic temple-telesterion on the north side of the Acropoli ...
. He was named a
Minister of France and
Peer of France
The Peerage of France (french: Pairie de France) was a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 in the Middle Ages.
The prestigious title and position of Peer of France (french: Pair de France, links=no) was ...
upon the
Bourbon Restoration. Excluded from the Académie française for having emigrated, he regained his seat in 1816. The third volume of his ''Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce'' was published posthumously in 1822.
Works
He published his impressions as ''Voyage Pittoresque en Grèce'' (Brussels 1782), often reprinted, and republished as late as 1842, as ''Voyage pittoresque dans l’Empire Ottomane''. It presented many little known monuments, set in an idealised Greece crushed by Ottoman domination and desiring to rediscover and reawaken its liberty. This romantic vision of modern-day Greece was taken apart by several other travellers at the start of the 19th century. Like them, he suggested one should go see these sites in person to better comprehend the ancient authors, walking round sites with their texts in one's hand, "to feel more live the different beauties of the pictures traced by Homer, by seeing the images he had in his eyes" ("pour sentir plus vivement les beautés différentes des tableaux tracés par Homère en voyant les images qu'il avait eues sous les yeux"). His narrative allowed his readership to get to know previously unknown regions of Greece, such as the Cyclades. He asked his protégé, the painter
Lancelot-Théodore Turpin de Crissé, to produce the engravings for the second volume.
His other works include a ''Dissertation sur Homère'', a
mémoire
In French culture, the word ''mémoire'', as in un mémoire ("a memory" – indefinite article), reflects the writer's own experiences and memories. The word has no direct English translation.
Up to the 18th century
The word appeared in the course ...
on
hippodrome
The hippodrome ( el, ἱππόδρομος) was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words ''hippos'' (ἵππος; "horse") and ''dromos'' (δρόμος; "course"). The term is used i ...
at
Olympia
The name Olympia may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games
* ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...
, and ''Recherches sur l'origine du
Bosphore de
Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to t ...
''.
References
"Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier", in Marie-Nicolas Bouillet et Alexis Chassang (dir.), Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie, 1878Biography, from the Académie française site*Elisabeth A. Fraser
Penn State University Press, 2017.
;Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choiseul-Gouffier, Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste De
1752 births
1817 deaths
Ambassadors of France to the Ottoman Empire
French classical scholars
Collectors from Paris
Expelled members of the Académie Française
Diplomats from Paris
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Peers of France
18th-century French diplomats
Marie-Gabriel
French emigrants to the Russian Empire