Photo. Giraudon.
The Story of Esther.
School of Sandro Botticelli.
Musée Condé.
In spite of these important purchases of Italian pictures the Duc d’Aumale never neglected an opportunity of acquiring French works of art, and he extended his collection as far as possible in that particular direction. So that from M. Destailleur, from the Comte de Fresnes, and from the Baron Seillier he acquired books that had been bound expressly for François I, for Henri II and for Marguerite de Valois. At the Hamilton Palace Sale he purchased for 12,375 francs a Book of Hours of the fourteenth century which had been specially bound for its then owner, François de Guise. In 1892 the sumptuous Psalter of Ingeburge of Denmark, wife of Philippe Auguste, found its way into this ever-increasing collection; and this was quickly followed by the interesting Breviary executed in the fourteenth century for Queen Jeanne d’Evreux.
In 1889 more than 310 French drawings were acquired from Lord Carlisle, including original work by Jean Perréal, by Jean and François Clouet, by Corneille de Lyon and by the Dumoustiers. The artistic, iconographic and historical value of these drawings has been pronounced on all hands to be almost unique; more especially with regard to the portraits of celebrated personages living between the years 1514 and 1560. Francis I with his Queens, his mistresses, his courtiers, and the ladies of his petites bandes; the famous Preux de Marignan, the great Montmorency and the Colignys, Henri II and his numerous sons and daughters; Catherine de Medicis and la belle Diane—all these famous heroes and heroines of history are met together in effigy at Chantilly: a place they all knew so well and enjoyed so much during their lifetime. The question of how these drawings, so highly valued under the Valois régime, were ever allowed to leave France has never been satisfactorily solved. Horace Walpole possessed a similar collection, but it was of much less artistic importance. It was the collection once owned by Mariette and is now apparently in the possession of an English peer.[29] Gaignières also collected French drawings of the same type, but after his death they greatly depreciated in value and passed from the Bibliothèque Royale into the Bodleian Library at Oxford. But the Howard portfolio, the most important of all, and also the Salting Collection were discovered in Florence. It is certain that there is a common link between all of the sets, and similar handwritings are to be found upon the margins of most of them. We must, however, postpone further discussion on this interesting question until a later chapter.
In 1889 the great painting by Meissonier, Les Cuirassiers de 1805, was bought at the Secrétan Sale for the sum of 190,000 francs; and soon after came Détaille’s finest work, Le Colonel Lepic à Eylau: “Haut les Têtes.”
In 1890 Corot’s Concert Champêtre cost the Duke 20,000 francs and proved how fully he appreciated the more recent art-movements in France.
His Royal Highness made his last acquisition in 1891, perhaps the most important of all, and one which certainly procured for him immense satisfaction—namely, forty miniatures by the famous Jean Fouquet from the Book of Hours of Étienne Chevalier. These unique treasures were purchased from Herr Brentano of Frankfurt for the sum of 250,000 francs and will be fully described presently.
Plate XXVI.