Jean-Pierre de Bougainville

Louis de Carmontelle

1760 · Watercolor over graphite and black and red chalk · Drawings and Prints

Born Louis Carrogis, the son of a cobbler, Carmontelle used his wit and talent to elevate his social position, eventually becoming employed in the d’Orléans court, where his duties included tutoring the duke’s son, designing gardens, and staging plays. As a draftsman, he left a legacy of 750 watercolor portraits, representing a broad swath of enlightenment society. The sitter, the scholar Jean-Pierre de Bougainville, was named to the Académie des Inscriptions and then, with the backing of Madame de Pompadour, elected to the Académie Française in 1754. De Bougainville would die at age forty, "a real loss for the world of letters," according to a manuscript penned near the end of Carmontelle’s life by his friend Richard de Lédans. Perrin Stein, March 2015

Artist

Louis de Carmontelle

Date

1760

Medium

Watercolor over graphite and black and red chalk

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2004