Artist/Maker
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
(French, 1771–1849)
Kensington Gardens, London, with Guard on Horseback and Pedestrians
1815
Watercolor, black chalk, graphite, black ink, and gouache on paper, laid on paper
Sheet (irregular): 5 3/4 × 4 1/8 in. (14.6 × 10.5 cm)
Purchase, PECO Foundation Fund for Drawings
2018.21.3
In this unique quartet Henriette demonstrates her eye for people in public spaces: Londoners strolling near Kensington Gardens, whose guards still mesmerize tourists (2018.21.3–.6). She executed them in 1815, when the Neuvilles resided in London. Kensington Gardens were once the private walled gardens of Kensington Palace, to the west of Hyde Park. A pavilion known as “Queen Anne’s Alcove,” designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1705, originally stood against the park wall. In 1867 it was moved near the Lancaster Gate entrance of Hyde Park. The baroness’s watercolor at the upper right (2018.21.4) preserves its original location.
About the Artist
Born in Sancerre, France into an aristocratic family, Henriette, as she preferred to be called, received an education that probably included drawing lessons. At the fall of the Bastille in 1789, she and her father fled Paris for their country house, Château de L’Estang, where she began her artistic self-education. In 1794, during the height of the French Revolution, she married the handsome and hot-headed Jean Guillaume Hyde de Neuville, an ardent royalist who became involved in conspiracies to reinstate the Bourbon monarchy. In 1800, the couple was imprisoned and forced into hiding under aliases because of his role in the “English Conspiracy.” The baron was also condemned as an outlaw for his alleged participation in a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
Fearing for her husband’s safety, the independent baroness attempted to disprove the charges. In 1805, she took her cause directly to Napoleon in a dramatic odyssey across Germany and Austria in pursuit of the French army, finally obtaining an audience with him in Vienna. Impressed with her courage, the Emperor allowed the couple to go into exile. They arrived in New York in 1807, where they stayed for seven years. During their second residency (1816–22), when her husband served as French Minister Plenipotentiary and was made a baron, they lived primarily in Washington, DC, where Henriette became an influential presence and celebrated hostess. After her return to France, the baroness seems to have retired her pen and watercolors. John Quincy Adams described her in his diary as “a woman of excellent temper, amiable disposition . . . profuse charity, yet judicious economy and sound discretion.”
DescriptionOne of a series of four watercolors that Hyde de Neuville drew of Londoners near Kensington Gardens during the couple's residency in the English metropolis in 1815.InscribedInscribed along lower edge in brown ink: "Life guards at horse Back."
ClassificationsDRAWINGS
Collections
- The Works of Anne Marguérite Joséphine Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1815
2018.21.6
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1815
2018.21.4
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1815
2018.21.5
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
ca. 1800-1806
2018.42.14
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1813
1953.287c
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1813
1953.287b
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1805
2019.8.1
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1805–1806
2018.21.2
John Singer Sargent
ca. 1876-1878
1935.85.3.153
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1816
2018.21.7
Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville
1805
2018.21.1