DATED 1812

As noted on the reverse to this portrait plaque, Nicolas Fauchat (1776-1829) was born in Rennes and was a Directeur at the Ministry of the Interior, a career described as ‘d'une carrière à succès de l'ère révolutionnaire’ (a successful career of the revolutionary era) in Le Mouvement social: bulletin trimestriel de l'Institut français d'histoire sociale (January 1966, p. 26). After his studies were interrupted by the Revolution, Fauchat began work supplying military provisions for the Italian army under Napoleon. He rose through the ranks to become first clerk of the general administration of military subsistence of the Northern Army in 1793, before moving to the Ponts et Chaussées and later the Banque de France (Les directeurs de ministère en France: XIXe-XXe siècles, 1976, p. 8). He subsequently obtained ministerial office, first in the Ministry of Bridges and Roads, and later the Ministry of Interior in 1807. He is noted for having helped many retain their jobs in his division following the Hundred Days of 1815 and during subsequent restructuring. During Fauchat's time in the Ministry, he at some point occupied 126 rue de Grenelle-Saint-Germain, Paris (Bulletin des lois de Royaume de France, Volume 7, July 1822, Paris, p. 325). Fauchat also wrote a book entitled Observations sur les ouvrages de M. de Pradt intitulés “Des colonies et de la révolution actuelle de l'Amérique”, et “Des trois derniers mois de l'Amérique meridionale”, first published in 1817.

Thanks to the inscription to the reverse of her plaque, we know that Nicolas Fauchat married Anne-Désirée Josephine-Colette Albert (b. 1782), and together they had a daughter named Clotilde (1810-37), who herself married Hippolyte de Goër de Hervé, and had three children including a daughter, Désirée (1830-1909), wife of Charles de la Boulaye (1813-1886).