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Augustin Blondel de Gagny ((:oɡystɛ̃ blɔ̃dɛl də ɡaɲi); March 1695 – 9 July 1776〔Louis Clément de Ris, ''Les amateurs d'autrefois'' 1877:344; quoting the notice of his burial, 10 July 1776 in the ''Mercure de France'' :351.〕) was a French connoisseur of the arts and a collector whose series of Paris auction sales, which took place soon after his death〔''Catalogue de Tableaux Precieux... qui composent le Cabinet de feu M. Blondel de Gagny, Trésorier-Général de la Caisse des Amortissements. Par Pierre Remy, Paris, 10 December 1776 - 22 January 1777'' (Lugt 2616); the sales actually occupied sessions in two blocks with a break at Christmas, 10 to 24 December 1776 and 8 to 22 January 1777.〕 were high-water marks of the history of collecting in 18th-century France.〔Louis Clément de Ris, ''Les Amateurs d’Autrefois'', vol. I Paris, 1877:343-58 is still the only full-length study.〕 Paintings and sculptures that passed through Blondel de Gagny's collection are dispersed in many of the world's great museums. The prints from his collection are less easily traced. == Biography == His father, Joseph Blondel, was ''conseiller'' and general treasurer at the Bâtiments du roi, the establishment in charge of building and maintaining the royal buildings and parks. Joseph purchased the château de Gagny from its Billy heirs in 1706; though it was purchased by the creditors of his estate in 1716, Augustin Blondel de Gagny retained its name.〔(Ville de Gagny: Patrimoine )〕 Augustin married Marguerite-Henriette Barbier, who predeceased him. Due in part to the confidence in his competence shown by Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville, from 1750 Augustin Blondel held the post of general treasurer of the ''Caisse des Amortissements'' that was intended to pay down the king's debts and from April 1752〔According to the memoirs of René Louis de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson, who rarely mentioned Blondel de Gagny without some mark of disdain: see comte de Ris 1873:347f.〕 that of supervisor of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, responsible for ephemeral decorations for all the fêtes of the court of Louis XVI. Part of his duties that must have been pleasant was the supervision of the Opera, for Blondel loved music: the Stradivarius violin "the best known by this master" according to the sale catalogue, which he kept in his little château at Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val d'Oise), was bought at the sale by Paillet, for 601 ''livres''; there were several other violins as well.〔The Stradivarius was lot 1139 ''Un excellent violon de Stradivarius, le meilleur connu de ce maître'', bought by "Paillet" (Comte de Ris 1873:350).〕 In 1759 he took up residence in his late father's ''hôtel particulier'' in Place Louis le Grand (Place Vendôme). There his collection of paintings and works of art was among the most visited and commented upon in Paris, after those of the princes.〔Colin B. Bailey, "Conventions of the eighteenth-century cabinet de tableaux: Blondel d'Azincourt's ''La première idée de la curiosité''", ''The Art Bulletin'' 69.3 (September 1987:431-47)〕 He had made his first public purchases at the sale of the comtesse de Verrue, 1737.〔Comte de Ris 1877:345.〕 By 1745 his place among the most selective collectors was well established: when the ''marchand-mercier'' Gersaint〔Edme-François Gersaint is remembered today for the shop sign that was painted for him by Watteau: Guillaume Glorieux, ''À l'enseigne de Gersaint: Edme-François Gersaint, marchand d'art sur le Pont Notre-Dame (1694-1750)'' 2002.〕 returned with paintings he had bought at The Hague, he went first to his patron, Blondel de Gagny, who selected from Gersaint's offerings a Nicolaes Berghem.〔This anecdote about Gersaint and "''son protecteur''" Blondel de Gagny is recorded in a manuscript annotation in a copy of Blondel de Gagny's sale catalogue, quoted by the comte de Ris 1877:345; that catalogue is conserved in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque National; for Gersaint's buying trip, Glorieux 2002:301.〕 Among the very few views of a French 18th-century collector's interior, to show how paintings were hung, is Gabriel de Saint-Aubin's drawing of Blondel de Gagny's ''cabinet intérieure'' part of the suite of rooms in which his collection was displayed, filling the walls to the cornice but carefully balanced, repeatedly creating pendants〔His pairing of Gerard ter Borch's ''A Lady Reading a Letter'', now at the Wallace Collection ((Wallace Collection: Gerard ter Borch, ''Lady reading a Letter'' )) and '' A Lady Writing a Letter'', in the second cabinet was described by Antoine-Nicolas Dezallier d'Argenville in 1757〕 and contrasts.〔Illustrated Bailey 1987: fig, 9.〕 Setting off the gilding of frames and the dark patination of bronze statuettes and the white of small marbles, green damask that Hester Thrale noticed covered the walls in at least one of the salons. Of the rich furnishings, by ''ébénistes'' of the calibre of Bernard II van Risamburgh,〔Furniture by "Bernard" appears in the sale catalogue.〕 little has been securely identified, not even Blondel de Gagny's gilt-bronze cartel clock by Charles Cressent a Rococo sculptural composition surmounted by Father Time with his scythe.〔Theodore Dell, "The Gilt-Bronze Cartel Clocks of Charles Cressent", ''The Burlington Magazine'' 109 No. 769 (April 1967:210-17) "Type C", p. 214〕 Blondel was one of the first to revive the taste for the Baroque furniture of André-Charles Boulle; a medal cabinet by Boulle of the familiar design delivered to Louis XIV is already described in the hôtel in 1766〔Hébert, ''Le Dictionnaire pittoresque et historique de Paris'', 1766, noted by André Pradère. "Les armoires à médailles de l'histoire de Louis XIV par Boulle et ses suiveurs", ''Revue de l'Art'', 1997; in the sale it was lot 955, according to Francis J. B. Watson, "A Set of Medal Cabinets by A.-C. Boulle" ''The Burlington Magazine'' 82 No. 478 (January 1943):16-20) who noted p.16 that a further pair belonged to M. Gaillard de Gagny.〕 and by the time of his death fully twenty armoires, commodes and tables attributed to the great Boulle or his sons figured in the sale catalogue. There were Chinese lacquer cabinets and boxes, Chinese and Japanese porcelains and those of Vincennes and Sèvres, bronzes and marbles, bronze fire dogs and chimney garnitures by Coustou〔The ''Marly Horses'' of Guillaume Coustou the Elder were reproduced as gilt-bronze fire dogs, Pierre Verlet notes (Verlet, ''Le style Louis XV'' 1942:67).〕 and Auguste〔''Auguste'': probably Robert-Joseph Auguste.〕— and 17 fine clocks.〔Comte de Ris 1873:357〕 Augustin Blondel de Gagny's own refined taste in paintings ran to Flemish and Dutch old masters of the 17th and 18th century (a Van Dyck ''Young Man Playing a Lute'', Gabriel Metsu,〔(Louvre: Gabriel Metsu, ''Marché aux herbes d'Amsterdam'' )〕 Nicolaes Berghem, Philips Wouwerman,〔(Louvre: Philips Wouverman, ''Chasse au cerf'' )〕 David Teniers the Younger' ''Prodigal Son''〔Purchased for Louis XVI at the Blondel d'Azincourt sale, 1783; now at the Louvre ((Louvre: David Teniers le Jeune, ''Festin de l'Enfant Prodigue'' )).〕), Among his French paintings were Nicolas Poussin's ''Nourriture de Jupiter'' and Claude Lorrain's ''View of the Campo Vaccino'', and a port capriccio,〔(Louvre: Claude Lorrain, ''Vue d'un port avec le Capitole'' )〕 all now at the Louvre.〔(Louvre: Claude Lorrain: Vue du Campo Vaccino'' )〕 His ''cabinet'', distributed among eleven rooms of the hôtel, was also celebrated for the number and quality of the small bronze sculptures interspersed with porcelains on tables and commodes and chimneypieces. There were the reductions of famous antiquities that would be expected, the usual paired bronze ''Enlèvement'' groups after Giambologna and François Girardon, and sculptures by Michel Anguier.〔Thomas W. Gaehtgens, ''et al.'' ''L'art et les normes sociales au XVIIIe siècle'' 2001:149.〕 Among the refined small bronzes that furnished his apartments was Robert Le Lorrain's ''Andromeda'', now at the Louvre;〔(Louvre: Robert Le Lorrain, ''Andromède'' )〕 Le Lorrain's other sculptures in the collection have not been traced: marble busts of a ''Faun'' and a ''Dryad'' and of ''Ganymede'' and ''Flora'' in the staircase, and bronzes ''Air'', ''A Child''and two busts of women .〔S. Lami, ''Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française sous le règne de Louis XIV''; M. Beaulieu, ''Robert Le Lorrain 1666-1743'', Paris, 1982:111-13〕 He also purchased the little château de Garges which he rebuilt in neoclassical taste by Pierre Contant d'Ivry; it was modified in the 19th century and has been demolished.〔(A remaining gate pier )〕 By terms of his will (9 July 1776) the collection was sold to provide capital for his grandchildren.〔Bailey 1987:434 note 21.〕 The sum of 405,741 ''livres'' was raised by the series of auctions. Louis XVI himself was among the purchasers. Further works of art from his collection appeared in sales of October and November 1783〔(Lugt 3511).〕 of his only son, Barthélemy-Augustin Blondel d’Azincourt (1719— 1783), who bought in at the sales a portion of his father’s collection.〔Bailey 1987:435.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Augustin Blondel de Gagny」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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