DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0067
M. NICOLAS BEAUJON
21
Paris in April 1914. Lebrun was a member of a committee chosen to
select such objects for preservation, and he was the only member who
kept the appointment, so that he selected what he liked for the State.
An example of the customers desired of art-dealers in the eighteenth
century, and particularly of the period with which we are at the moment
concerned, may be found in M. Nicolas Beaujon, best remembered in the
Paris of to-day as the munificent founder of the great hospital which bears
his name. As banker of the court, and later on as Receiver-General of
finance in Normandy, he made a very large fortune, much of which he
expended for the public benefit, or in private charity. At the time when,
about eight years after her marriage, Madame Lebrun painted his portrait,
he was living in the Elysee Palace, formerly the Paris home of Madame
de Pompadour, and nowadays of the President of the Republic.
M. Beaujon was of precisely the kind of capitalist that makes the
fortunes of dealers, as we may gather from Madame Lebrun’s account
of her visit to him at the Elysee. “ The first salon one entered was hung
with rather showy pictures, none of remarkable merit—so easy is it for
amateurs to be deceived, whatever value they may attach to their acquisi-
tions. The next salon was a music-room : pianos great and small, all kinds
of musical instruments, nothing was missing from the collection. Other
rooms, such as the boudoirs and the studies, were most elegantly furnished.
The bath-room was especially charming : a couch, and the bath itself,
were covered with beautiful muslin (of which the design represented little
branches of flowers) lined with pink, and the walls were hung with the
same materials. The suites of rooms on the first floor were equally well
furnished. In the middle of one room, the ceiling of which was supported
by columns, stood an enormous gilt basket, surrounded by flowers, and
containing a bed wherein no one had ever lain.”
The contrast between this display of luxury and the life of the master
of the house was so sharp that it is worth while to quote further from
Madame Vigee-Lebrun’s account. “ It was impossible for me to move
about in that delightful house without heaving a sigh of pity for its wealthy
proprietor, and without remembering an anecdote I had heard a few
days before. An Englishman, anxious to see everything that was con-
sidered remarkable in Paris, successfully sought permission from M. de
Beaujon to visit his fine house. When he was shown into the dining-room,
he found the big table laid, as I had found it myself, and, turning to the
footman who was showing him round, he said : ‘ Your master evidently
21
Paris in April 1914. Lebrun was a member of a committee chosen to
select such objects for preservation, and he was the only member who
kept the appointment, so that he selected what he liked for the State.
An example of the customers desired of art-dealers in the eighteenth
century, and particularly of the period with which we are at the moment
concerned, may be found in M. Nicolas Beaujon, best remembered in the
Paris of to-day as the munificent founder of the great hospital which bears
his name. As banker of the court, and later on as Receiver-General of
finance in Normandy, he made a very large fortune, much of which he
expended for the public benefit, or in private charity. At the time when,
about eight years after her marriage, Madame Lebrun painted his portrait,
he was living in the Elysee Palace, formerly the Paris home of Madame
de Pompadour, and nowadays of the President of the Republic.
M. Beaujon was of precisely the kind of capitalist that makes the
fortunes of dealers, as we may gather from Madame Lebrun’s account
of her visit to him at the Elysee. “ The first salon one entered was hung
with rather showy pictures, none of remarkable merit—so easy is it for
amateurs to be deceived, whatever value they may attach to their acquisi-
tions. The next salon was a music-room : pianos great and small, all kinds
of musical instruments, nothing was missing from the collection. Other
rooms, such as the boudoirs and the studies, were most elegantly furnished.
The bath-room was especially charming : a couch, and the bath itself,
were covered with beautiful muslin (of which the design represented little
branches of flowers) lined with pink, and the walls were hung with the
same materials. The suites of rooms on the first floor were equally well
furnished. In the middle of one room, the ceiling of which was supported
by columns, stood an enormous gilt basket, surrounded by flowers, and
containing a bed wherein no one had ever lain.”
The contrast between this display of luxury and the life of the master
of the house was so sharp that it is worth while to quote further from
Madame Vigee-Lebrun’s account. “ It was impossible for me to move
about in that delightful house without heaving a sigh of pity for its wealthy
proprietor, and without remembering an anecdote I had heard a few
days before. An Englishman, anxious to see everything that was con-
sidered remarkable in Paris, successfully sought permission from M. de
Beaujon to visit his fine house. When he was shown into the dining-room,
he found the big table laid, as I had found it myself, and, turning to the
footman who was showing him round, he said : ‘ Your master evidently