Alfred Émilien de Nieuwerkerke
Alfred Émilien O'Hara, Comte de Nieuwerkerke (born April 16, 1811 in Paris , † January 16, 1892 in Gattaiola near Lucca ), was a French sculptor, art collector and influential cultural politician. During the reign of Napoleon III. he held the office of General Director of the State Museums, was Superintendent (later Minister) of Fine Arts and President of the Jury of the Paris Salon .
family
The father Nieuwerkerkes, whose ancestors originally came from the Netherlands, served as a cavalry officer in the French army. His mother, a de Vassan native , is considered the illegitimate granddaughter of the Duke of Orléans . From 1825 to 1829 he attended the Stanislas College and then the Saumur cavalry school . Already after the July Revolution of 1830 he left the military. Nieuwerkerke married Marie Técla de Monttessuy in 1832, the daughter of Count Gustave-Auguste de Monttessuy, who was mayor of Juvisy-sur-Orge . After the stillbirth of a daughter, this marriage remained childless.
sculptor
During a stay in Italy in 1834, Nieuwerkerke visited numerous museums. Fascinated by the ancient statues and sculptures in the Félicie de Fauveau collection , he decided to begin training as a sculptor with Baron Carlo Marochetti . His works were initially influenced by Romanticism. Later he developed into a conservative representative of historicism. One of his earliest works was the equestrian statue Battle of the Duke of Clarence from 1838. Between 1842 and 1861, Nieuwerkerke repeatedly took part in the exhibitions of the Paris Salon. He made his debut there with a marble bust of Count Charles de Ganay. In 1843 he exhibited the plaster model of the equestrian statue of William of Orange and the marble bust of the Marquis de Mortemart in the salon . The bronze cast of the equestrian statue was inaugurated in front of the Paleis Noordeinde in The Hague in 1845 , where it is still located today. In 1846 he showed busts of Richard de l'Aigle and René Descartes in the salon . In the following year, in addition to three marble busts, a plaster model of Queen Isabella I of Spain came to the exhibition. Another version of Descartes made of marble, with the stately height of three meters, was installed in Tours in 1853 . In the same year his Napoléon I monument was inaugurated in Lyon. An equestrian statue of Napoleon I was unveiled a little later in La Roche-sur-Yon . In addition to busts of Napoleon III, Empress Eugénie and Princess Mathildes, numerous medallions of the imperial family and members of the aristocracy were created. He received one of his last public commissions in 1860 for the tomb of Marshal Nicolas Catinat in the Eglise de Saint-Gratien near Saint-Denis .
Relationship with Mathilde Bonaparte
After initial success as a sculptor, Nieuwerkerke traveled to Italy again in 1845 with the Count of Chambord and met Mathilde Bonaparte here . A relationship developed with the cousin of Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (later Napoléon III) that would last for more than twenty years and which greatly favored his subsequent social advancement and his career in imperial administration. At that time, Mathilde Bonaparte was still married to Prince Anatole Demidoff , whom she left in 1846 to move into a palace in Paris' Rue de Courcelles, which Nieuwerkerke had chosen for her. The chronicler Horace de Viel-Castel describes Mathilde's connection to Nieuwerkerke as follows: “It does not hide its connection in any way. She talks about Nieuwerkerke as a woman would talk about her husband. Everyone knows that they live in the same house. ”Since Nieuwerkerke was still married to Marie Técla de Monttessuy, this connection was initially met with great rejection at the Louis-Philippe court . Mathilde, who pursued artistic interests herself, established her house as a center of Paris society soon after her cousin took office and, together with Nieuwerkerke at the imperial court, exercised considerable influence in cultural-political matters. Although the relationship with Mathilde Bonaparte lasted until 1869, another woman, Princess Olga Cantacuzène (1843–1929), joined Nieuwerkerke's life as early as 1861.
Cultural politician
Shortly after Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was elected President of France in December 1848, Nieuwerkerke was appointed director of the state museums. He initially focused on the Louvre . Here he established soirees with artists, politicians and nobles. After nine halls with French sculptures had already been opened in the Louvre in October 1851, the number of exhibition halls increased from 89 to 132 after the completion of the connecting wing designed by Hector Lefuel between the Louvre and the Tuileries the Louvre. One of the first acquisitions was the "Immaculate Conception" from Bartolomé Esteban Murillo . The acquisition of the collection of the Marquis Giampietro Campana di Cavelli attracted particular attention . In addition to numerous Roman antiquities, over 600 paintings came into the possession of the French state. The Caze and Sauvagot collections later also moved to the Louvre. Nieuwerkerke introduced an innovative museum administration based on Italian and German models. This included the systematic publication of collection catalogs, the daily (except Mondays) opening of the museum, which was previously only open to visitors on Sundays, as well as the creation of committees for restoration, acquisition of works of art, contracting and teaching. This centralized administration anticipated the modern system of national museums.
When purchasing contemporary works of art, he preferred artists such as the sculptors François Rude , Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux , Emmanuel Frémiet or the painter Augustin Théodule Ribot , refusing to acquire the already recognized representatives of Impressionism and Realism ( Eugène Delacroix , Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot , Jean -François Millet ) and with this conservative attitude slowed down the development of French art.
In addition to the Louvre, Nieuwerkerkes also paid attention to the other museums, such as the Musée du Luxembourg and the Palace of Versailles . As a senator for the Aisne department , Nieuwerkerke felt particularly committed to Picardy . In addition to promoting local artists through public contracts, the provincial museums received financial grants and significant loans of works of art from Paris. From 1854 the Musée Napoleon III was built. (now Le Musée de Picardie) in Amiens . It is the first building in France to be used as an art museum. In addition, the Musée des Antiquités Nationales (Museum of Celtic and Gallo-Roman Antiquities) was established in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1862 . On the other hand, Nieuwerkerke was often the focus of criticism. He was accused of illegal loans and unsuccessful restoration work as well as the loan of paintings to the Empress Eugénie and the acquisition of a bust acquired as a Renaissance work of art, which then turned out to be contemporary work. In particular, the reform of the École des Beaux-Arts , whose teaching he submitted to the government, triggered violent press reactions. However, since the emperor's government could not be attacked directly due to the restricted freedom of the press, Nieuwerkerke often served as a substitute target.
From 1852 Nieuwerkerke was also responsible for the management of the Paris Salon. He exerted a great influence on the jury at this official exhibition of living artists, which took place annually at the time. He saw his task in preserving a conservatively shaped concept of quality and limited the number of permitted works. After increasing protests on the part of the artists, a Salon des Refusés was opened in 1863 at the instigation of the Emperor with the rejected works of art , which immediately had its big scandal with Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe . The painter again aroused violent attacks in the Salon of 1865 with the picture Olympia .
Napoleon III had already intervened directly in Nieuwerkerke's politics during the cultural program of the 1855 World Exhibition . As president of the jury of the Fine Arts Section, it was Nieuwerkerke's responsibility to select the works of art for the exhibition. Contrary to Nieuwerkerke's decision, Napoleon III urged him. Exhibit the image Freedom leads the people by Eugène Delacroix.
The numerous offices held by Nieuwerkerke included the Vice-Presidency of the Society of French Antique Dealers, the Presidency of the Committee on Historic Monuments and the position of Superintendent of Fine Arts, which was promoted to Minister of Fine Arts in 1870. For his services he was appointed by the emperor as honorary chamberlain (chambellan honoraire) and as a grand officer of the Legion of Honor .
Collector
At the age of 24, Nieuwerkerke bought his first historical weapons and began a passion that would accompany him for almost his entire life. Thanks to his good relationships with dealers and other collectors, he was able to build up a valuable collection with works from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In addition to weapons and armor, he was interested in paintings, sculptures, ceramics, enamel work, old furniture and glass objects. After Nieuwerkerke had inherited his father in 1864, he was able to add other important art objects and weapons to the collection, which had been continuously built up until then. Due to financial difficulties, he sold this collection to Sir Richard Wallace in 1871. In the Wallace Collection , founded later, many of the works of art and weapons collected by Nieuwerkerke are now available to the public. A later attempt in Italy to rebuild a collection of Renaissance works of art was short-lived. Nieuwerkerke soon sold these pieces back to a dealer.
Last years
After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the deposition of Napoleon III. Nieuwerkerke fled to England with Olga Cantacuzène in September 1870. After the defeat of the Paris Commune , he returned to Paris for a short time and sold his palace (Hôtel de Nieuwerkerke), which the architect Hector Lefuel had only built in 1869 on Rue Murillo at Parc Monceau , to the American collector Riggs. He then went to Italy, where he bought a Renaissance villa in Gattaiola, a suburb of Lucca, in 1872 and lived here with Olga Cantacuzène. In connection with Napoleon III. he traveled to England for his funeral in 1873. The Nieuwerkerke, who went out of fashion as a sculptor, worked again on plaster busts in 1881. In contrast to his earlier portraits of rulers, however, he now chose a peasant and a peasant woman as the subject. In his will he appointed Olga Cantacuzène as the universal heiress. He died at the age of 81 and was buried in the Lucca cemetery.
literature
- Marie-Dominique de Teneuille (Ed.): Le comte de Nieuwerkerke: art et pouvoir sous Napoléon III. Exhibition catalog Musée National du Château de Compiègne, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris 2000 ISBN 2-7118-4015-8
- Suzanne Gaynor: Comte de Nieuwerkerke: A prominent official of the Second Empire and his collection . in Apollo magazine vol. CXXII, No. 283, November 1985, pages 372-79.
- Fernande Goldschmidt: Nieuwerkerke, le bel Emilien: prestigieux directeur du Louvre sous Napoléon III. Paris 1997 ISBN 2-910192-05-9
- George H. Marcus: The second Empire, 1852-1870; Art in France under Napoleon III. . Exhibition catalog Philadelphia, Detroit, Paris 1979.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nieuwerkerke, Alfred Émilien de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Nieuwerkerke, Alfred Émilien O'Hara de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French sculptor and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 16, 1811 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 16, 1892 |
| Place of death | Gattaiola near Lucca |