(J. Hl. R.)
FOUCHER, SIMON (1644-1696), French philosopher, was born at Dijon on the 1st of March 1644. He was the son of a merchant, and appears to have taken orders at a very early age. For some years he held the position of honorary canon at Dijon, but this he resigned in order to take up his residence in Paris. He graduated at the Sorbonne, and spent the remainder of his life in literary work in Paris, where he died on the 27th of April 1696. In his day Foucher enjoyed considerable repute as a keen opponent of Malebranche. His philosophical standpoint was one of scepticism in regard to external perception. He revived the old arguments of the Academy, and advanced them with much ingenuity against Malebranche’s doctrine. Otherwise his scepticism is subordinate to orthodox belief, the fundamental dogmas of the church seeming to him intuitively evident. His object was to reconcile his religious with his philosophical creed, and to remain a Christian without ceasing to be an academician. His writings against Malebranche were collected under the title Dissertations sur la recherche de la vérité, 1693.
See F. Rabbe, L’Abbé Simon Foucher (1867); C. Jourdain in Dictionnaire des sciences philosophiques (1875), pp. 557-559.
FOUCQUET, JEAN, or Jehan (c. 1415-1485), French painter, born at Tours, is the most representative and national French painter of the 15th century. Of his life little is known, but it is certain that he was in Italy about 1437, where he executed the portrait of Pope Eugenius IV., and that upon his return to France, whilst retaining his purely French sentiment, he grafted the elements of the Tuscan style, which he had acquired during his sojourn in Italy, upon the style of the Van Eycks, which was the basis of early 15th-century French art, and thus became the founder of an important new school. He was court painter to Louis XI. Though his supreme excellence as an illuminator and miniaturist, of exquisite precision in the rendering of the finest detail, and his power of clear characterization in work on this minute scale, have long since procured him an eminent position in the art of his country, his importance as a painter was only realized when his portraits and altarpieces were for the first time brought together from various parts of Europe in 1904, at the exhibition of the French Primitives held at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. One of Foucquet’s most important paintings is the diptych, formerly at Notre Dame de Melun, of which one wing, depicting Agnes Sorel as the Virgin, is now at the Antwerp Museum and the other in the Berlin Gallery. The Louvre has his oil portraits of Charles VII., of Count Wilczek, and of Jouvenal des Ursins, besides a portrait drawing in crayon; whilst an authentic portrait from his brush is in the Liechtenstein collection. Far more numerous are his illuminated books and miniatures that have come down to us. The Brentano-Laroche collection at Frankfort contains forty miniatures from a Book of Hours, painted in 1461 for Etienne Chevalier who is portrayed by Foucquet on the Berlin wing of the Melun altarpiece. From Foucquet’s hand again are eleven out of the fourteen miniatures illustrating a translation of Josephus at the Bibliothèque Nationale. The second volume of this MS., unfortunately with only one of the original thirteen miniatures, was discovered and bought in 1903 by Mr Henry Yates Thompson at a London sale, and restored by him to France.
See Œuvres de Jehan Foucquet (Curmer, Paris, 1866-1867); A. de Champeaux and P. Gauchery, Œuvres d’art exécutées pour le duc de Berry; “Facsimiles of two histories by Jean Foucquet” from vols. i. and ii. of the Anciennetés des Juifs (London, 1902); Charles Blanc, Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles (introduction); and Georges Lafenestre, Jehan Fouquet (Paris, 1902).
FOUGÈRES, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, 30 m. N.E. of Rennes by rail. Pop. (1906) 21,847. Fougères is built on the summit and slopes of a hill on the left bank of the Nançon, a tributary of the Couesnon. It was formerly one of the strongest places on the frontier towards Normandy, and it still preserves some portions of its medieval fortifications, notably a gateway of the 15th century known as the Porte St Sulpice. The castle, which is situated in the lower part of the town, directly overlooking the Nançon, is now a picturesque ruin, but gives abundant evidence in its towers and outworks of its former strength and magnificence. The finest of the towers was erected in 1242 by Hugues of Lusignan, and named after Mélusine, the mythical foundress of the family. The churches of St Léonard and St Sulpice both date, at least in part, from the 15th century. An hôtel de ville and a belfry, both of the 15th century, are of architectural interest, and the town possesses many curious old houses. There is a statue of General B. de Lari Coisière (d. 1812), born in the town. Fougères is the seat of a subprefect, and has a tribunal of first instance, a chamber of commerce and a communal college. It is the chief industrial town of its department, being a centre for the manufacture of boots and shoes; tanning and leather-dressing and the manufacture of sail-cloth and other fabrics are also important industries. Trade is in dairy produce and in the granite of the neighbouring quarries. Fougères frequently figures in Breton history from the 11th to the 15th century. It was taken by the English in 1166, and again in 1448; and the name of Surienne, the captor on the second occasion, is still borne by one of the towers of the castle. In 1488 it was taken by the troops of Charles VIII. under la Trémoille. In the middle ages Fougères was a lordship of some importance, which in the 13th century passed into the possession of the family of Lusignan, and in 1307 was confiscated by the crown and afterwards changed hands many times. In 1793, during the wars of the Vendée, it was occupied by the insurgents.