Lot Essay
In 1763 Louis Carrogis was employed as Lecteur du Duc de Chartres in the household of the Duc D'Orléans, where he remained until the Revolution. Very little is known about his life before then.
The Duc d'Orléans, called Louis le Gros, and his son, the Duc de Chartres, took the lead in a parliamentary group opposed to royal authority and attracted the attention of the Parisians, making the court of the Palais-Royal a center of political activity.
A few years after Carmontelle took up his position, two ladies appeared at the Court, the Marquise de Montesson and her niece, Madame de Genlis, who ingratiated themselves with the Princes and set up Salons at the Palais-Royal and orchestrated an intense social life there for eighteen years. Carmontelle shared their success and became the organizer of all the events at court.
Although Carmontelle was praised for his wit and talent, he remained a servant, and would only be allowed to join the ducal family for ice-cream in the evening in order to execute portraits. Most of the drawings show the sitters in profile. They were sketched in red and black chalk as an entertainment. Carmontelle back in his room would color them brightly in order to use them in a magic lantern, like a vue d'optic, hence the need to draw them in profile. In May 1763, in his Correspondence Littéraire Philosophique et Critique, Paris, V, 1878, Grimm mentioned that 'Monsieur de Carmontelle had made albums of portraits drawn in chalk and painted in watercolor and bodycolor...The books...give a perfect idea of the diversity of the people he encountered...from Monsieur le Dauphin to the boot-black of Saint-Cloud.'
After executing the portraits, Carmontelle would insert them into one of eleven albums, containing 750 portraits. These albums remained in the artist's possession, and copies were made only when a visitor requested one.
The paper was thin and led Pierre de la Mésangère to mount the drawings on their characteristic mount.
Several portraits by Carmontelle were sold in these Rooms, 12 January 1995, lots 107-109.
The Duc d'Orléans, called Louis le Gros, and his son, the Duc de Chartres, took the lead in a parliamentary group opposed to royal authority and attracted the attention of the Parisians, making the court of the Palais-Royal a center of political activity.
A few years after Carmontelle took up his position, two ladies appeared at the Court, the Marquise de Montesson and her niece, Madame de Genlis, who ingratiated themselves with the Princes and set up Salons at the Palais-Royal and orchestrated an intense social life there for eighteen years. Carmontelle shared their success and became the organizer of all the events at court.
Although Carmontelle was praised for his wit and talent, he remained a servant, and would only be allowed to join the ducal family for ice-cream in the evening in order to execute portraits. Most of the drawings show the sitters in profile. They were sketched in red and black chalk as an entertainment. Carmontelle back in his room would color them brightly in order to use them in a magic lantern, like a vue d'optic, hence the need to draw them in profile. In May 1763, in his Correspondence Littéraire Philosophique et Critique, Paris, V, 1878, Grimm mentioned that 'Monsieur de Carmontelle had made albums of portraits drawn in chalk and painted in watercolor and bodycolor...The books...give a perfect idea of the diversity of the people he encountered...from Monsieur le Dauphin to the boot-black of Saint-Cloud.'
After executing the portraits, Carmontelle would insert them into one of eleven albums, containing 750 portraits. These albums remained in the artist's possession, and copies were made only when a visitor requested one.
The paper was thin and led Pierre de la Mésangère to mount the drawings on their characteristic mount.
Several portraits by Carmontelle were sold in these Rooms, 12 January 1995, lots 107-109.