In 1877 the Duc d’Aumale availed himself of another opportunity of restoring to France a French collection which had been brought to England, namely, that of M. Carmontelle, which comprised no less than 450 coloured sketches for portraits which date from the year 1757 to the year 1775. Carmontelle, as tutor to the Duc de Chartres, had plenty of opportunity during his leisure hours to sketch all the men and women with whom he came in contact, which he did merely for his own amusement, without any expectation of payment. The facility with which he executed these sketches astonished even Grimm, who remarked upon his skill. In about two hours each, with the greatest ease, he reproduced all the most noticeable figures in the life of the period, from the Dauphin and his courtiers, the Princes and Princesses of the House of Bourbon and Orléans, the officers, ladies and gentlemen, ecclesiastics, musicians and actors, down to the domestics, and even the floor-scrubber at Saint-Cloud. These sketches amounted at the time of his death to the number of 700, and in 1807 were bought en bloc by his friend Richard de Ledans, who disposed of a good many of them. When he died in 1816 450 drawings only were left. These were at once bought by Pierre de la Mesangère, editor of Le Journal des Dames et des Modes, and they form an exceedingly valuable record of the fashions at the time of Louis XV.
In 1831 the Carmontelle drawings reappeared in Scotland in the Duff-Gordon-Duff Collection, whence they were acquired by the Duc d’Aumale for the sum of 112,500 francs, to add to other examples of this artist’s work, particularly a portrait of Carmontelle himself, which he already possessed. They are now stored in large portfolios in the Salle Caroline at Chantilly, and, catalogued with comments and notes by the late Anatole Gruyer, afford great pleasure and amusement to those who have leisure to examine them.
Plate XXII.
Photo. Giraudon.
A GAME OF CHESS.
Carmontelle.
Musée Condé.