Artist/Maker Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville (French, 1771–1849)

Man Reading a Book, verso: study of a sofa

ca. 1800-1806

Black and red chalk, blue pastel, and touches of gray watercolor on paper; red chalk

Sheet (irregular): 6 1/4 × 7 1/4 in. (15.9 × 18.4 cm)

Gift of Mark Emanuel

2018.42.11

This full-length, profile study depicts a seated, bewigged man, legs crossed, who is wearing spectacles and reading. He is the same individual drawn by Neuville on another sheet (2018.42.4), and he sits on the same fauteuil as represented in that drawing. The artist's use of varied media suggests that she was adding to her artistic arsenal and expanding her repertoire of media in an attempt to educate herself as an artist. 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.”

DescriptionFull-length, profile study of a seated, bewigged man, legs crossed, who is wearing spectacles and reading. The verso has the study of a sofa.

MarkingsWatermark: [illegible]

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

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The Works of Anne Marguérite Joséphine Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville

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