Compte Rendu (Account Rendered)

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CultureFrench

Titles

Compte Rendu (Account Rendered)

Datec. 1819

PlaceFrance

MediumEtching with engraving and watercolor on laid paper

DimensionsImage: 11 1/8 × 15 3/4 in. (28.2 × 40 cm)
Plate: 12 5/16 × 16 3/4 in. (31.3 × 42.5 cm)
Sheet: 12 11/16 × 17 7/16 in. (32.3 × 44.3 cm)

Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by Susan Neptune

Object numberB.2023.8

Not on view

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Department

Bayou Bend

Object Type

PRINTS

DescriptionThe short-lived Bonapartist incursion into southeast Texas in 1818, known as the Champ d’Asile (Field of Asylum), followed Napoleon’s 1815 defeat at Waterloo and the subsequent wide dispersal of his officer corps, many of whom fled to the United States. Congress granted land in western Alabama to a group of French exiles who organized themselves as the Society for the Cultivation of the Grape and Olive. The French general Charles Lallemand took control of the society and used its assets to finance his expedition to Texas. Located approximately 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico near present-day Liberty, Texas, on the banks of the Trinity River, the Champ d’Asile lasted only a matter of months. At that time, the United States and Spain were in negotiations over borders in the wake of the Louisiana Purchase, and the presence of French military personnel in the so-called neutral ground between them aroused significant concern on both sides. While the exact purpose of Lallemand’s enterprise is still unclear, it seems likely that one of his main goals was to play off the anxieties of both sides against one another to his greatest advantage. The Spanish sent a force from San Antonio on September 16, 1818, to confront Lallemand, but found that the encampment had already been abandoned. Lallemand had received word in July that Spanish troops would be dispatched and immediately ordered his men to leave. The Champ d’Asile was greatly romanticized in France, aided by those in the liberal press opposed to Louis XVIII. Several prints in the Bayou Bend Collection reflect this wildly romanticized view of the incident. Popular support in France for the Champ d’Asile extended to the collection of funds solicited by a periodical titled La Minerve Française, which espoused the Bonapartist cause. The subject of the present print is the supposed embezzlement of the funds intended for the relief and support of those working to establish the Champ d’Asile. Here, greedy and dissipated men sit and stand around a table at which the central figure begins to carve up a pie inscribed “revenus du Champ d’Asile.” To the left, one figure offers a toast, while another on the far right appears to have in his coat pocket an enema syringe. This very rare print offers a striking and important contrast to the popular, romanticized image of the Champ d’Asile that dominated the French public imagination. Political tensions surrounded Lallemand’s enterprise in Texas; this print makes it clear that some in France held a very dim view of the Champ d’Asile, suspecting that it was driven by the self-serving motives of its leaders.
Provenance[French book dealer, member of International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, 54th California International Antiquarian Book Fair, San Francisco, 2022]; purchased by [McBride Rare Books, Dobbs Ferry, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2023.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Recto: Inscribed in black ink at upper left within a speech balloon from the far left figure: à la santé des habitants du champ d’ asile.
Recto: Inscribed in black ink on a dish in the center of the table: REVENUS / DU CHAMP D’ ASILE
Recto: Inscribed in black ink, in plate, bottom center: COMPTE RENDU
Verso: Inscribed win graphite, left center: 40513 / an f

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Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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