Pierre Grimod du Fort (1692 – October 1748) was a
fermier général and art collector under
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...
, and a member of the Grimaud, or Grimod, family. One of the richest fermiers, he was also superintendent of the Post Office.
Biography
He married Marie Antoinette de Caulincourt and they had one child,
Pierre Gaspard Marie Grimaud d'Orsay (1748–1809).
On 8 July 1741 he bought the ''seigneurie d'Orsay'' (
fiefdom
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...
of
Orsay
Orsay () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris.
A fortified location of the Chevreuse valley since the 8th centur ...
), in the
valley of Chevreuse, which his son had made into a countship on his majority, becoming
Comte d'Orsay. He built a chateau in what is now the parc d'Orsay and began the extensive picturesque gardens around it which were continued after his death by the Dufort family counsellor.
In Paris, Pierre bought the
hôtel Chamillart on the rue du Coq-Héron, in 1734, and had it decorated by
Charles-Joseph Natoire.
Counts of Orsay
French art collectors
1692 births
1748 deaths
Fermiers généraux
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