Quintin Craufurd

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Quintin Craufurd (born September 22, 1743 in Kilwinning , Ayrshire (Scotland), † November 23, 1819 in Paris ) was a British art collector and writer.

Life

Quintin Craufurd's Mausoleum at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery

At a young age, Craufurd went to India, where he joined the East India Company . After making a handsome fortune there, he returned to Europe at the age of 40, where he settled in Paris. Here he devoted himself to art and literature, built a good library and collected paintings, coins and other antiques. He was familiar with the French court, especially with Queen Marie Antoinette, and was one of the people who prepared the escape to Varennes .

After the outbreak of the French Revolution , he fled to Brussels, but briefly returned to Paris in 1792 in the vain hope of being able to save the royal family from captivity. Like many French emigrants, he lived in exile in England until the Amiens Treaty of March 27, 1802 between Great Britain and France made his return to Paris possible. After the renewed outbreak of war on May 18, 1803, Talleyrand's influence enabled him to stay in Paris.

He published numerous works, including a. a cultural history of India, he wrote about paintings in his collection as well as about the French Revolution. He died in Paris in 1819.

Publications

  • Sketches, chiefly relating to the history, religion, learning and manners o the Hindoos: with a concise account of the present state of the native powers of Hindostan . London 1790.
  • The history of the Bastile: with a concise account of the late revolution in France. To which is added, an appendix containing, among other particulars, an inquiry into the history of the prisoner with the mask . London 1790.
  • Esquisses de l'histoire des India . Dresden 1791.
  • Histoire de la Bastille avec un appendice contenant entr 'autres choses une discussion sur le prisonnier au masque de fer . Trad. sur la seconde éd. de l'original anglois. 1798.
  • Essai historique sur le docteur Swift , et sur son influence dans le gouvernement de la Grande-Bretagne, depuis 1710, jusqu'à la mort de la reine Anne, en 1714: suivi de notices historiques sur plusieurs personnages d'Angleterre célèbres dans les affaires et les lettres . Paris 1808.
  • Mémoires de Madame Du Hausset, femme de chambre de madame de Pompadour: avec des notes et des éclaircissemens historiques (1808).
  • Notice on Marie Antoinette (1809)
  • Mélanges d'histoire, de litterature ..., tirés d'un portfolio . 1809
  • Essai sur la littérature francaise, écrits pour l'usage d'une dame étrangére, compatriote . Paris 1815.
  • On Pericles and the arts in Greece, previously to, and during the time he flourished: being a chapter of a manuscript essay on the history of Greece . London 1817.
  • Researches concerning the Laws, Theology, Learning and Commerce of Ancient and Modern India (1817)
  • Notice sur la duchesse de la Vallière, extraite du catalog raisonné de la collection de portraits de M. Craufurd . Paris 1818.
  • Notices sur Marie Stuart, rein d'Écosse et sur Marie-Antoinette, rein de France / extraites du catalog raisonné de la collection de portraits de M. Craufurd . Paris 1819.
  • Secret History of the King of France and his Escape from Paris (published 1885)

Catalog of the auction of his art collection after his death:

  • Catalog de tableaux, gouaches, miniatures ... et autres articles de haute curiosité, composant le cabinet de feu M. Quintin Craufurd, dont la vente aura lieu le 20 novembre [1820] et jours suivans, etc . (Par MM. Delaroche et Chles. Paillet.) Paris 1820.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Craufurd, Quintin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Craufurd, Quentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British art collector and writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1743
PLACE OF BIRTH Kilwinning , Ayrshire, Scotland
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1819
Place of death Paris