[Born at Vidalon-lès-Annonai, in France, 1745. Died at Serrières, in France, 1799. Aged 54.]
The son of a paper-maker. Was led by reading the philosophical writings of Priestley to conceive the idea of employing gas, lighter than the atmosphere, as a means of ascending through the air. His first experiment was made at Annonai in 1783, and with such success that he repeated it the same year in Paris, and again at Versailles before the Court. Montgolfier was rewarded for his invention by admission to the Academy of Sciences, the cordon of St. Michel, and a pension of 2000 livres.
251*. Gaspar Monge. Geometrician.
[Born at Beaunée, in France, 1746. Died in Paris, 1818. Aged 72.]
Inventor of descriptive geometry, and one of the founders of the Polytechnic School at Paris. During the Revolution elected Minister of Marine but soon resigning, took a personally active part in the equipment of the army for war. Under Napoleon, visited Egypt, where his investigations of architectural remains were incessant. His whole life devoted to science; and his work on the history of Mathematics testifies to his deep spirit of research. An impartial writer, but a praiser of few.
[Bust to come.]
252. Dominique Denon. Egyptian Traveller.
[Born at Chalons-sur-Saone, in France, 1747. Died in Paris, 1825. Aged 78.]
Brought up to the law, he neglected his profession for the fine arts. Found favour with Louis XV. and his successor. Fulfilled several diplomatic appointments with great success. In 1787, became a member of the Academy of Painters. Employed by Robespierre to design the new republican official costumes. Accompanied the French expedition to Egypt; of which one result was his interesting and magnificent work, published at the public expense, “Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, during the campaigns of General Buonaparte.” This work first brought the wonderful remains of ancient Egyptian art distinctly before our eyes. Subsequently appointed, by Napoleon, Director-General of Museums, and mainly organized in Paris the admirable collection which for a time constituted the richest treasury of art ever known in Europe. At the Restoration, Denon lost his office, and devoted his leisure to the arrangement of his own museum. He was an ardent lover of the fine arts, possessed an elegant taste and liberal mind.
[From the marble in the Louvre, by M. Marin. 1827.]