Lot n° 344
Estimation :
3000 - 4000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 3 250EUR
[American Revolutionary War - American - Lot 344
[American Revolutionary War - American
Revolutionary War]
Jacques Rivaud, engineer (Mâcon 1749-1820 Mâcon)
The vestibule of a vast neoclassical architecture, animated by oriental figures
Pen and wash, watercolor on paper
39 x 28.5 cm
Annotated lower right: Fait à Boston par l'ingénieur
Rivaud February 6, 1778
Our architectural drawing, intended to demonstrate its author's perfect mastery of perspective, is a rare artistic testimony to the very first secret expedition organized in 1777 in support of the Insurgent cause, commanded by Colonel Tronson du Coudray and financed by Beaumarchais.
Beaumarchais.
Jacques Rivaud, a student at the École des Ponts et Chaussées in 1768, was one of a small number of engineers who embarked on the Amphitrite ship, which sailed from Le Havre and arrived in America in May 1777.
Previously employed in Caen (1772), Moulins (1773), Lorraine
Lorraine (1774) and Metz, he is reported to have returned to Paris in 1775, prior to his American adventure, of which, prior to the discovery of this drawing, we had only archival traces. We know of his numerous urban planning projects in and around Mâcon, as "sous-ingénieur des Etats du Mâconnais" (Mâcon,
Musée des Ursulines, inv. 2017.5.1). It is likely that in
Boston, he advised on the consolidation of the fortifications, which had been badly damaged after the exhausting eleven-month siege the city had to endure in 1775-1776.
A few months later, the first French naval expedition "officially at war", commanded by Count d'Estaing, called at Boston (August-November 1778). The only other Frenchman to have left us a record of Boston is Pierre Ozanne (1737-1813), the famous naval draughtsman and member of the expedition.
Marine, a member of the said expedition, who executed a dozen views from his ship (ill.1).
Our drawing presents a subject that seems surprisingly light in relation to the warlike context in which it is set, especially when we consider the "exotic" costumes of the figures. The style of architecture of which he is a proponent evokes that pared-down, mineral neoclassicism later seen in America as "Federal-style architecture".
Additional illustration caption (in PJ)
Pierre Ozanne, "Boston, Capital of North
Septentrionale", 1778, pen and gray wash, New York, The
Metropolitan Museum, inv. 83.2.1105.
Documentary sources:_x001e_
- A. Lasseray, Les Français sous les treize étoiles (1775-1783),
Mâcon, Paris, Protat, 1935.
- G. Lacour-Gayet, "La vieille France et la jeune Amérique - Campagne du vice-amiral d'Estaing" in "Revue des Deux
Mondes", vol. 25, 1905.
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