Clément Pierre Marillier
Premier Recueil de Chiffres (1-7) et Deuxième Recueil de Chiffres (8-13) (Carriage Designs)

Public Domain

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Artist Clément Pierre Marillier (French, 1740–1808)French, 1740–1808

Afterafter Charles Germain de Saint-Aubin (French, 1721–1786)French, 1721–1786

CultureFrench

Titles

Premier Recueil de Chiffres (1-7) et Deuxième Recueil de Chiffres (8-13) (Carriage Designs)

Datebefore 1768

MediumSuite of 13 etchings on ivory laid paper

DimensionsPlate (each, approximate): 12 13/16 × 14 in. (32.6 × 35.5 cm)
Sheet (each, approximate): 16 9/16 × 17 3/4 in. (42 × 45.1 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Michael W. Dale in honor of Salle W. Vaughn

Object number2022.258

Not on view

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Department

Prints and Drawings

Object Type

PRINTS

ProvenanceThe artist, 18th century; Polycarpe Charles Séchan (1803-1874) (Lugt 2342)1; [his sale, Paris, Ch. Pillet, Clement expert, Séchan Collection, Antique prints of VIIIth century, ornaments of XVIth, XVIIth, and XVIIIth centuries, Collections of prints, drawings), 2-3 March 1875, pp. 32, 32, 258 nhone (No. 1, Large folio, 137 drawings).]2; E. FOUCL [his bookplate, inside cover (separated)]3; [Marlborough Rare Books, London, as of 1985]; Charlotte & Arthur E. Vershbow (Arthur d2012)4; New York, Christie’s, April 9-10, 2013, lot [Susan Schulman Fine Art, Inc., New York] as of 2021-2022; purchased by MFAH, 2022.

1 Polycarpe Charles Séchan (1803-1874)

This mark seems to date to the late 19th century, encountered on ornamental prints. Some attribute it to an amateur by the name of Soleil, perhaps F. Soleil, principal cashier of the Banque de France, whose fine collection of old and modern prints of the various schools, lithographs and drawings went up for public sale at Paris, after his death, on January 15, 1872 and the following 10 days (expert Clément, Cats. 2248). This hypothesis was cautiously asserted by Lugt.

On several drawings, this mark is accompanied by three other marks: a D in a standing rectangle with canted sides, by Despléchin (L.722), a tablet in the name of Séchan / Feuchère / & Cie (L.3429), and a second tablet in the name of Séchan / Despléchin / & Dieterle (L.2275). The simultaneous presence of the last two marks with the letter S could suggest that it is the initial of the name Séchan. Drawings that are part of an album (seen in Amsterdam, coll. part., 2005) appeared under number 1 of the sale after death of Séchan, Paris, March 2-3, 1875, which allows us to deduce that it is indeed his collection.

Polycarpe Charles Séchan, painter and decorator, is the son of Jean-Fris Séchan, tailor, and Anne-Félicité Guinée. He entered the studio of Lefèvre, decorator of the Porte-Saint-Martin theater at a very young age, and a few years later became a pupil of Pierre Luc Charles Cicéri (1782-1868). It was in the studio of the latter that he met Jules Pierre Michel Diéterle (1811-1889), his junior by eight years. Séchan and Diéterle participated with Cicéri in creating the sets for Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable in 1831. In his Memoirs, Alexandre Dumas senior underlined the importance of this set while reconsidering the role of each: "Bow before him, all of you, Séchan, Diéterle, Despléchin, Thierry, Cambon, Devoir, Moynet, kings, viceroys and princes of modern decoration: it was Father Cicéri who made the cloister of Robert-le-Diable! (1863, t. IX, p. 76). Following disagreements with Cicéri, his young collaborators decided to found their own workshop, but the Republican uprising of June 1832 forced them to postpone their project. Séchan, after firing the shot at the funeral of General Lamarck, went into exile in Switzerland, as the inscription of his name on the July column reminds us.The company was finally created in 1834 with Léon Feuchère (1804-1857) - also involved Diéterle and Édouard Désiré Joseph Despléchin (1802-1870) - with the corporate name Séchan, Feuchère et Cie. Feuchère left the association in 1841 and a second company was created until the end of 1848 with Despléchin and Diéterle (see L. 2275). They acquired a good reputation with the sets of the Opera in Paris, and also worked for other theaters in France and abroad or for ephemeral sets under Louis Philippe and Napoleon III. Séchan, who received the Legion of Honor in 1849, was entrusted the same year with the restoration of the paintings and gilding of the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre, work carried out under the direction of Félix Duban, architect of the Louvre (1848-1851) ; Jules Diéterle collaborates there for the drawings of the figurines and the arabesques. Séchan, decorator, was first established rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière, at Les Menus Plaisirs, then rue de Provence, at n° 7, then at n° 10 rue Turgot. Among his principal works, one also quotes his paintings for the church Saint-Eustache in Paris, his decorative paintings carried out with Diéterle, become his son-in-law, in Constantinople, for the sultan Abdul-Medjid, and those which he carried out in the casino of Baden-Baden assisted by his second son-in-law, Louis Jules Haumont (1826-?). Séchan executed forty illustrations for Baron Taylor's Normandy Picturesque (Paris, 1825); the latter said of him in his preface: "Séchan, as a draftsman, was wonderful and I do not see anyone who is superior to him". Charles Blanc (1813-1882), founder of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts and very close to Séchan, had agreed to preface his Memoirs, but death prevented him from keeping his promise. Collected by Adolphe Badin, the Memories of a Theater Man were published in 1883. Séchan had brought together in his private mansion, rue de la Rochefoucauld, an important collection of furniture and works of art, known through sales. We know less that he also collected a set of engravings of the French school from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and drawings of ornaments from the 16th and 18th centuries, of which only a very small part appears in the sales catalogs. after death. Séchan used a smaller version of his mark (L.3904), either in red or dry. See also L.2275 and L.3429.

2 see Paris, Ch. Pillet, Clement expert, his sale (Séchan Collection, Antique prints of VIIIth century, ornaments of XVIth, XVIIth, and XVIIIth centuries, Collections of prints, drawings), 2-3 March 1875, pp. 32, 32, 258 nhone (No. 1, Large folio, 137 drawings).

3E. FOUCL. His bookplate inside front cover (separated) This impression of the receuil is mentioned in Guilmard, p. 211, Cat. 7.

4 Arthur Vershbow was a Boston area trained engineer who operated a family manufacturing business. He and his wife, Charlotte, were also avid book collectors. Arthur at one time lead the Boston Athenaeum. There were a well-known couple in the book world. Arthur died in 2012, at the age of 90, predeceased by Charlotte.

Exhibition HistoryNone known.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Plate 1
Recto: Inscribed on plate, on scroll inside floral cartouche: PREMIER RECUEIL DE CHIFFRES/Inventes par/DE SAINT AUBIN/Dessinateur du Roi/A.P.D.R.
Recto: Inscribed on plate, at bottom left corner of scroll: Drouet Scrip.
Recto: Inscribed on plate, directly below image: Marillier Sculp.
Recto: Inscribed on plate, center bottom edge below image: A Paris ches la Ve. de F. Chereau rue S. Jacques aux 2. Pietiers d’Or.

Plate 8
-Recto: Inscribed on plate, lower center and center bottom edge below image: IIME RECUEIL DE CHIFFRES/Inventes par DE SAINT AUBIN/Dessinateur du Roi/A Paris ches la Ve. de F. Chereau rue S. Jacques aux 2. Pietiers d’Or. A.P.D.R.

Each print has its number (1-13) inscribed on the plate at the bottom right corner and the text “A.P.D.R.” inscribed on the plate at the center bottom edge. The text “Marillier Sculp.” also appears inscribed below the image on each plate. A red stamp of an “S” enclosed in a square with rounded corners appears at lower center on each sheet.

Watermark: Auvergne with bunch of grapes countermarks

Catalogue raisonnéCohen p. 684-685, Guilmard no. 7, p. 211

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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