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Tag Archives: The French Revolution

Salons & Cafés survive “la Terreur”

19 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in French Literature, History

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Cafés, Chateaubriand, De l'Allemagne, Le Café Procope, Madame de Staël, Romanticism, Salons, Staël theorist, The French Revolution, Victor Hugo

Corbeille de fleurs, by Eugène Delacroix

Corbeille de fleurs by Eugène Delacroix (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“A Basket of Flowers” by Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863)

The Salon

The world that followed the French Revolution was a new world, but it had kept many of the institutions of the Old World, or l’Ancien Régime. One of these institutions was the salon. The first known French salon was seventeenth-century Catherine de Rambouillet’s Chambre Bleue. Guests enjoyed making believe they were shepherds and shepherdesses and they wrote poems, at times very tricky ones. La Chambre bleue was a magnet. Even Richelieu was inspired to visit.

In the middle of the seventeenth century, Catherine de Rambouillet‘s salon was replaced by Mademoiselle de Scudéry‘s. Mademoiselle de Scudéry was a prolific writer and her favourite subject was love. She drew the map of Tendre, Tendre being the land of love.

In the eighteenth century, the Golden Age of the salon, the most famous was Madame Geoffrin‘s (June 1699 – 6 October 1777). Dignitaries visiting Paris were infinitely grateful for being invited. It was such a privilege, but salons were not as they had been in the seventeenth century. The French eighteenth century was the Age of Enlightenment, so ideas were discussed.

On Monday, Madame Geoffrin received artists and, on Wednesday, men of letters. Ideas were discussed, but never too seriously. That would have been a breach of etiquette. L’honnête homme and the Encyclopédistes were a witty group. All were treated to a fine meal. However, even at Madame Geoffrin‘s salon, love remained a favourite subject.

Madame Geoffrin`s salon in 1755 by Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier. Oil on canvas, Château de Malmaison, Rueil -Malmaison

Madame Geoffrin‘s salon in 1755 by Anicet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier. Château de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

madame Récamier and Chateaubriand

Madame Récamier (4 December 1777 – 11 May 1849)
 

After and even during the French Revolution, except for the “Reign of Terror,” people, gentlemen mainly, flocked to salons such as Madame Récamier’s and Madame de Staël‘s. It is also at that time that François-René de Chateaubriand and Madame de Staël (22 April 1766 – 14 July 1817) inaugurated French Romanticism, a literary movement that gave primacy to sentiment.  

Goethe‘s Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) was published in 1774, so France lagged behind both German and English Romanticism. François-René de Chateaubriand would soon publish René and Atala, novellas included in his Génie du christianisme, or Genius of Christianity (1802). It fact, although he is not included in David’s portrait of Madame Récamier, chances are Chateaubriand is looking at the “divine” Madame Récamier. In the early 1800’s, Chateaubriand was the most prominent author in France and Madame Récamier’s finest guest, but as he grew older, he lived like a recluse in a Paris apartment and visited one person only, Madame Récamier, Juliette.

François-René de Chateaubriand by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson.

Chateaubriand by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Germaine de Staël

Germaine de Staël (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As for Germaine de Staël, a prominent theorist of Romanticism, Napoleon often banished her from France, causing her to spend several years at Coppet, her family’s Swiss residence. She was the French-born daughter of Swiss and Protestant banker James Necker, Louis XVI’s director of finance. Finding a husband for Germaine was not easy. Her father did not want her to marry a Catholic. Although she lived in the company of men who were fascinated by her extraordinary intellectual gifts and charm, most could not be serious candidates because Frenchmen are Catholics. She therefore married baron Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein, a Swedish diplomat. 

Victor Hugo & Romanticism

Victor Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885)

It could be said that Chateaubriand and Madame de Staël founded French Romanticism, a literary movement that spread to the fine arts and music. She is the author, among several books and treatises, of Delphine (1802) and Corinne (1807), novels. But her most fascinating work is De l’Allemagne, or Germany (1810-1813). It is, to a large extent, a manifesto of Western European Romanticism. She discussed L’Allemagne with her excellent friend and lover, Swiss-born novelist Benjamin Constant, or Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (25 October 1767 – 8 December 1830), a descendant of Huguenots (French Protestant Calvinists).  

However, if French Romanticism has a manifesto, it is Victor Hugo‘s Préface de “Cromwell,” a play published in 1827. The 12-syllable noble verse, called l’alexandrin, had long been broken into two hémistiches of 6 syllables, or “pieds.” Victor Hugo used such alexandrins, but he also divided the 12-syllable verse into 3 groups of 4 syllables or “pieds.”  

Je-mar-che-rai//les-yeux-fi-xés//sur-mes-pen-sées, 4 x 3 (3 trimètres)
Sans-rien-voir-au de-hors,//sans-en-ten-dr’ au-cun-bruit, 6 x 2 (2 hémistiches)
Seul,-in-con-nu,//le-dos-cour-bé,//les-mains-croi-sées, 4 x 3
Trist’,-et-le-jour//pour-moi-se-ra//com-me-la-nuit. 4 x 3
 
from Hugo’s “Demain, dès l’aube…” 
 

Hugo also brought back things medieval, which he did with Notre-Dame de Paris or The Hunch Back of Notre-Dame. Chateaubriand felt seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French literature was somewhat borrowed, which it was. French authors emulated the Anciens or Greco-Roman literature.

At Café Procope: at rear, from left to right: Condorcet, La Harpe, Voltaire (with his arm raised) and Diderot

At Café Procope at rear, from left to right: Condorcet, La Harpe, Voltaire (with his arm raised) and Diderot* 

*our characters may not be at Café Procope, but they could have been

The Cafés

In cafés, however, men of letters discussed more freely. Cafés had become popular in the seventeenth century. Le Café Procope, established in 1686, has never closed shop except for occasional renovations. 

Conclusion

During the French Revolution, Chateaubriand spent 10 years outside France. For one year he was in the United States and then joined an émigré army at Coblenz, Germany. By and large, years émigrés spent abroad were disruptive.

Madame de Staël enjoyed diplomatic immunity in Paris as the wife of Sweden’s ambassador to France. However she lived in England in 1893-1894 with her lover Louis de Narbonne, an émigré. She returned to Paris, via Coppet, her family’s Swiss residence, as soon as the Terreur was over, in the summer of 1794.

She was a successful salonnière under the Directoire (1795-1799), a government toppled by Napoleon’s 18 Brumaire, Year VIII (9 November 1799) coup d’État. She fared poorly under the Consulat, with Napoleon as first Consul. He banished her for nearly a decade but could not prevent her from thinking and writing. Coppet was a beehive. I still enjoy reading Madame de Staël’s De l’Allemagne.

The French Revolution deprived France of tens of thousands of its citizens. But, somehow, tens of thousands survived as did the institutions, salons and cafés, where they congregated to discuss such ideas as liberté, égalité, fraternité.

—ooo—

Sources:
  • Aurelian Craiutu: Faces of Moderation: Mme de Staël’s Politics during the Directory
  • EuropeanHistory.about.com
  • The Encyclopædia Britannica
Cafés
Vangélis 
(Voltaire had a desk at le Café Procope)
Germaine de Staël

Germaine de Staël (Google images)

 
© Micheline Walker
19 February 2014
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“La Marseillaise”

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in History, Music, The French Revolution

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Hector Berlioz arrangement, Levée en masse or Conscription, Rouget de l'Isle composer, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Ouverture, The Estates-General, The French Revolution

Rouget de Lisle singing  La Marseillaise for the first time, at the Townhall in Strasbourg or at Dietrich's home.
Rouget de Lisle singing “La Marseillaise” for the first time, at the Town hall in Strasbourg or at Dietrich’s home. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

*Isidore Pils (19 July 1813 – 3 December 1875)

La Marseillaise written by Rouget de Lisle 

Rouget de Lisle 
The Army of the Rhine
Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (guillotined)
Dinner in Strasbourg
25 April 1792 (composed)
14 July 1795 (National Anthem)
 

I would like to commemorate a event, the birth of La Marseillaise.[i] La Marseillaise, adopted by the Convention on 14 July 1795, is the current national anthem of France, but it was composed in 1792, in Strasbourg, by Rouget de Lisle (10 May 1760, Lons-le-Saunier – 26 June 1836, Choisy-le-Roi). There would be modifications to the Marseillaise, but it outlived the French Revolution and had an interesting career.

Rouget de Lisle was asked to compose a Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin (a War song for the Army of the Rhine) by the mayor of Strasbourg, Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (14 November 1748-29 – December 1793; by guillotine). Rouget de Lisle composed La Marseillaise on 25 April 1792, during one night of patriotic enthusiasm. La Marseillaise as national anthem was suppressed during certain periods, such as the Napoleonic era (Napoleon I), and there would be modifications, but La Marseillaise is the current national anthem of France. La Marseillaise was published in Rouget’s Essays in Verse and Prose, 1797.

Ironically, Rouget de Lisle was a Royalist who was jailed in 1793 and not released until the Thermidorian Reaction, i.e. when Maximilien de Robespierre and Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just were guillotined, on 28 July 1794. Rouget was not guillotined, due, perhaps, to his composition: La Marseillaise.

La Marseillaise as represented on the Arc de Triomphe
La Marseillaise as represented on the Arc de Triomphe
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Strasbourg to Marseilles

Levée en masse
Provençal volunteers
Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (guillotined)
 

Composed in Strasbourg (northeast France), Rouget de Lisle’s anthem was entitled La Marseillaise, which doesn’t make much sense, geographically speaking. But it so happens that the anthem had been adopted by Provençal volunteers led by Charles-Jean-Marie Barbaroux. Barbaroux went to Paris and the song spread. It was inspirational and compelling. volunteers led by Charles-Jean-Marie Barbaroux. Barbaroux went to Paris and the song spread. It was inspirational and compelling.

Barbaroux and the Provençal volunteers

Charles-Jean-Marie Barbaroux: the Provençal volunteers
Strasbourg: Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (guillotined)  
 

The naming of La Marseillaise had little to do with geographical location. Provençal volunteers, under the command of Charles-Jean-Marie Barbaroux, had adopted the Marseillaise as their chant de guerre, their war song. Armies have always marched to of the sound music. Barbaroux (6 March 1767 – 25 June 1794), a Freemason and a victim of the guillotine, went to Paris and dissemination of La Marseillaise, by that title, began. Given that the above-mentioned dinner, when Dietrich asked Rouget de Lisle to write an army song for the Army of the Rhine, took place in Strasbourg, at the mayor’s house, the house of Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, but the song had acquired a life of its own. 

The Official Anthem of France: 1879 & 1887

1879
1887
Valérie Giscard d’Estaing (1974 until 1981)
 

In 1879, La Marseillaise became the official anthem of France (Third Republic) and an official version was composed in 1887. Former French President Valérie Giscard d’Estaing (b. 2 February 1926; in office from 1974 to 1981) criticized it and asked that the rhythm of the national anthem be slower (see L’Élisée, France and L’Express).

Hector Berlioz, however, composed an orchestrated version of the Marseillaise that gave it dignity. In fact, there were many delightful arrangements, transcriptions and quotations of La Marseillaise, despite its rather gruesome lyrics. 

Arrangements, Transcriptions and Quotations

Rouget de Lisle is remembered for his Marseillaise. However, what is particularly interesting is the career of that one piece of music. Wikipedia’s entry La Marseillaise has a long list of arrangements, transcriptions and quotations of Rouget’s composition.

Among arrangements of La Marseillaise, Hector Berlioz‘s 1830 arrangement for soprano, chorus and orchestra is very dramatic and has a Russian flavour. I wish I had found a better recording—better sound—than the one inserted below.

Berlioz’s Marseillaise was ‘quoted’ by Daniel Barenboim in the version of the Marseillaise inserted in my last post, 2 February 2014. We also have a piano transcriptions by Liszt and other pieces.

Musical Quotations

La Marseillaise has in fact been quoted frequently. Tchaikovsky‘s use of the Marseillaise in his 1912 Ouverture is masterful. I have included a movement of Tchaikovsky’s at the bottom of this post.

La Marseillaise has inspired millions. But would that the French Revolution had ended with the Tennis Court Oath, a meeting of representatives of the Third Estate that took place in a jeu de paume, an indoor tennis court. It didn’t. From the moment it began, the Revolution could not be contained.  It had gathered the momentum that led to the “Terror.”

So we had best close with the Marseillaise.

RELATED ARTICLES:

  • Ninth Thermidor: the End of the “Terror” (michelinewalker.com) 
  • “C’est mon ami,” composed by Marie-Antoinette (michelinewalker.com)
  • Resilience: from the French Revolution to the Interstate Highway System… (michelinewalker.com)
Sources:
  • Fordham University, Modern History Sourcebook: La Marseillaise
  • French Government L’Élisée, France
  • F. A. M. Miguet’s History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #9602]
  • La Marseillaise, Wikipedia: words and translation

_________________________

[i] “La Marseillaise”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/366458/La-Marseillaise>.

Liberty Leading the People (1830), Louvre-Lens
Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix, 1833, Louvre-Lens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rouget de L’Isle /Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869)

La Marseillaise

Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture (Finale)

01-022460UniteetindivisibilitedelaRepublique-RMNpourCarnavalet3

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5 February 2014
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Freemasonry & Abolitionism

31 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Black history, Mulatto

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Battle of Vertières, Code Noir, Freemasonry, French enlightenment, Haitian Revolution, Joseph Boulogne, The Black Legion, The French Revolution, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Toussaint Louverture

“Engraving depicting the exterior of Exeter Hall, reproduced on a 1905 postcard.”      (Caption and photo credit: Wikipedia)

 “Engraving depicting the exterior of Exeter Hall, reproduced on a 1905 postcard.” (Caption and photo credit: Wikipedia)[i]

The 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention, was held in Exeter Hall, a Masonic Hall. In fact, Exeter Hall is a synonym for the Anti-Slavery Society.

Quakers played an important role in the abolition of slavery. One of their leaders was French-born American Anthony Benezet (Antoine Bénézet). However, the Age of Enlightenment saw a rebirth of Freemasonry whose members took very seriously what would become the motto of France: liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, brotherhood [fraternity]).

Prince Hall (Prince Hall Masonry)

Prince Hall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

However, African-Americans could not join Masonry, except that Prince Hall (1735 – 1807) was allowed to establish Prince Hall Masonry during the eighteenth century. Yet, Freemasonry played an important role in the abolition of slavery, but it should be noted that although Freemasonry flourished during the Age of Enlightenment (the 17th and 18th centuries), Masonic Lodges did not and do not always consider other Lodges as “regular.” For instance, one condition of membership is a belief in a supreme being and scripture.  Given this condition, current French Masonic lodges are not considered legitimate.[ii] (See Freemasonry, Wikipedia)  

 

   

Eighteenth-Century Masonry

Ignatius Sancho

Ignatius Sancho

However, as mentioned above, eighteenth-century Masonry shared the ideals of abolitionism. For instance, John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu KG, KB, PC (1690 – 5 July 1749, made sure Ignatius Sancho was educated, and the Montagu family always protected Sancho. John Montagu was a Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. Montagu family always protected Sancho. John Montagu was a Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. Moreover, Blacks and mulattoes[iii] have been active abolitionists and Freemasons, including Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-George, the “Black Mozart,” Europe’s finest swordsman, not to mention an accomplished equestrian.

The struggle to abolish slavery is linked with the Enlightenment which subjugated tradition to the rule of reason and promoted tolerance. Yet, a large number of French slave owners were cruel.

Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-George

Famed mulatto Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint George, (spelled Saint-Georges by Tom Reiss and Gabriel Banat*) the “Black Mozart,” was a Freemason.  He was a friend of George IV, a future king of England and a Freemason.

* author of The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow

La Loge Olympique

Moreover, Saint-George (c. 1745 – 1799) was the conductor of the largest orchestra of his era, the Loge Olympique, founded by French Freemasons and, among French Freemasons, Joseph Boulogne, the “Black Mozart” himself.

In fact, Joseph Boulogne, was “the first person of African descent to join a Masonic Lodge in France. He was initiated in Paris to ‘Les 9 Sœurs,’ [The 9 Sisters] a Lodge belonging to the Grand Orient of France.” (See The Chevalier de Saint-George, Wikipedia.) He premiered, as conductor, Joseph Haydn’s “Paris Symphonies” at the Loge Olympique. Coincidentally, Joseph Haydn (31 March 1732 – 31 May 1809) was also a Freemason, as was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Moreover, in 1791, Joseph Boulogne (c. 1745 – 1799) was appointed colonel of the the “Black Legion,” or Légion franche des Américains et du Midi. The “Black Legion,” or Saint-George Legion, was comprised mainly of men of color with 800 infantry and 200 cavalry personnel. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who was trained as a fencer by Joseph Boulogne at La Boëssière‘s Academy, would be Joseph Boulogne’s second-in-command.  For more information, please click on Joseph Boulogne.

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas[iii]

As for Thomas-Alexandre, Alexandre Dumas père‘s father, nicknamed “le diable noir” (the “Black Devil”), he joined the Queen’s Dragoons as a mere private and under the name (nom de guerre) Alexandre Dumas in 1786. I believe he was a Freemason but cannot confirm that he was.

In 1775, Antoine sold the four children born to him and Marie-Cessette Dumas to pay for his return trip to France. The children were probably sold à réméré, or “conditionally, with the right of redemption” (Reiss’ wording, p. 55), but Thomas-Alexandre is the only one of the four children Antoine redeemed. According to Alexandre Dumas, père, the author of The Count of Monte-Cristo and The Three Musketeers, his grandmother, Marie-Cessette, died of dysentery in 1772. (See Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Wikipedia.)

Haitian Revolution (Photo credit:  Wikipedia)

Haitian Revolution, Battle of Vertières (18 November 1803)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Toussaint Louverture  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Toussaint Louverture
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Toussaint Louverture

Toussaint Louverture, nicknamed the “Black Napoleon,” was the leader of the Haitian Revolution (1791 -1804). According to Wikipedia, Toussaint Bréda was a Freemason. (See Toussaint Louverture, Wikipedia.)

Toussaint Bréda, probably born on All Saint’s Day, la Toussaint, had been a free man of color since 1776 or 1777 and he owned property in Saint-Domingue. Initially, Toussaint was an ally of the Spaniards in Santo Dominguo, but he changed allegiance when France abolished slavery under Robespierre on 4 February 1794. Toussaint Bréda, who became Toussaint Louverture or L’Ouverture (the opening), during the Haitian Revolution, was of African descent. He was not a mulatto. He spoke French and French créole, but did not acquire a good knowledge of written French.

By 1801, Haiti was unofficially free. However, Napoleon sent his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc to the island. Toussaint was betrayed, arrested and deported to France, where he was imprisoned, at Fort-de-Joux, and died in 1803.  

Before leaving Saint-Domingue, Toussaint said, prophetically:

“In overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty; it will spring up again from the roots, for they are many and they are deep.” (See Toussaint Louverture, Wikipedia.)

On 18 November 1803, during the “second” Haitian Revolution, Jean-Jacques Dessalines defeated General de Rochambeau at the Battle of Vertières. Napoleon’s army had been weakened. It had lost two-thirds of its men to yellow fever. Haiti was proclaimed the Republic of Haiti on 1 January 1804. Dessalines named himself Emperor. The Haitian Revolution has been associated with the French Revolution. Authority was being questioned, which entailed enslavement.

Free Women of Color with their Children and Servants, oil painting by Agostino Brunias, Dominica, c.1764-1796

Free Women of Color with their Children and Servants, oil painting by Agostino Brunias, Dominica, c. 1764-1796 (Photo and caption credit: Wikipedia)

The Enlightenment: liberté, égalité, fraternité

The objectives of Freemasonry were in fact the objectives of the Enlightenment.  As I mentioned above, they are summed up by the French motto: liberté, égalité, fraternité. Tom Reiss writes that

French Enlightenment philosophers liked to use slavery as a symbol of human, and particularly political oppression. ‘Man is born free but is everywhere in chains,’ wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the The Social Contract in 1762. (p. 60)

But to be more precise, eighteenth-century Freemasonry recognized an aristocracy of the mind rather than an accidental aristocracy, i.e. a mere accident of birth. However, aristocrats and American Presidents, beginning with George Washington, wasted no time in applying for membership in an aristocracy above aristocracy. They joined composers such as Joseph Haydn and the “White Mozart,” the composer of the all-but-Masonic Zauberflöte (K. 620) (The Magic Flute). (See The Magic Flute, Wikipedia) 

In other words, eighteenth-century Freemasonry sought equality for both the “White Mozart,” who could never have married an aristocrat, and the “Black Mozart,” who could never have married a white woman. Freemasonry played an important role in the abolition of Slavery, but so did other elements and other groups, such as France’s Société des amis des Noirs (the Society of the Friends of the Blacks), the salons, cafés, etc.

However, I would agree with Mozart biographer Maynard Solomon (born January 5, 1930) who writes that “Mozart’s position within the Masonic movement … lay with the rationalist, Enlightenment-inspired membership, as opposed to those members oriented toward mysticism and the occult.” (See Mozart, Early Life, Wikipedia.)

781PX-~1

French Colonialism: The Code Noir

However, despite a number of massacres, French colonialism was less harsh on slaves than colonialism in other parts of the world. The Code Noir, promulgated in 1685 by Louis XIV, prohibited the abuse of slaves. In 1691, records of an incident read as follows:

“‘The King has been informed that two negroes from Martinique crossed on the ship the Oiseau,’ reads the laconic record of the incident in the Royal Naval Ministry. ‘[His Majesty] has not judged it apropos to return them to the isles, their liberty being acquired by the laws of the kingdom concerning slaves, as soon as they touch the Soil.’ The slaves were free.” (Reiss, pp. 61-62)

Would that Louis had acted as magnanimously with respect to the Huguenots, French Calvinist protestants. He didn’t. The Edict of Nantes, an edict of tolerance issued on 13 April 1598, was revoked in 1685. They were brutally persecuted.

—ooo—

In short, I can’t help thinking that the lumières themselves (Voltaire, Diderot, both of whom were Freemasons, and other major figures associated with the French Enlightenment) shuddered in their grave when the guillotine severed the head of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and scientist Antoine Lavoisier. The French Revolution went way too far.

Carmontelle's watercolour (1763) of Leopold Mozart with Wolfgang Amadeus and Maria Anna is among his best-known works.

Carmontelle‘s watercolour (1763) of Leopold Mozart with Wolfgang Amadeus and Maria Anna. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Dumas Dynasty repeated

  1. Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (20 June 1714, at Belleville-en-Caux – 15 June 1786, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye) (arrived in France, aboard the Trésorier, the first week of December 1775); (Reiss, p. 52)
  2. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (25 March 1762, at Jérémie, Saint-Domingue, current Haiti – 26 February 1806, at Villers-Cotterêts [Aisne]), born to a black slave Marie-Cessette Dumas (arrived in France on August 30, 1776); (Reiss, p. 55)
  3. Alexandre Dumas, père (24 July 1802 at Villers-Cotterêts – 5 December 1870, at Puy, near Dieppe), the legitimate son of Marie-Louise Labouret;
  4. Alexandre Dumas, fils (Paris 27 July 1824 – 27 Novem­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ber 1895), the illegitimate son of Marie-Laure-Catherine Labay, a dressmaker.
Sources:
 
Le Code Noir pdf (accessed under Le Code Noir entries)
The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow, 
by Gabriel Banat (2006)
Joseph Boulogne 
 

RELATED ARTICLES

  • The Dumas Dynasty: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (michelinewalker.com)
  • Créoles, Cajuns & Uncle Remus (michelinewalker.com)
  • Ignatius Sancho & Laurence Sterne: a Letter (michelinewalker.com)
  • The Abolition of Slavery (michelinewalker.com)

 ____________________

[i] The 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention was held in Exeter Hall, a Masonic Hall. In fact, Exeter Hall is a synonym for the Anti-Slavery Society.

[ii] At the moment, the Grand Orient de France is not considered as “regular” because its members have ceased to recognize a “supreme being.” (See Frédéric Desmons, Wikipedia.)

[iii] Tom Reiss, The Black Count: glory, revolution, betrayal, and the real Count of Monte Cristo (New York: Crown Publishers, 2012).

The “White Mozart” (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
The Magic Flute (Queen of Night Aria)
Diana Damrau as Queen of Night
Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina
Royal Opera House
Colin Davis, conductor  
Toussaint L'Ouverture
Toussaint L’Ouverture (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
© Micheline Walker
30 January 2014
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Le Chevalier de Saint-George: Reviving a Legend

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Biography, Chevalier de Saint-George, Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne, Marie-Angoinette., Micheline Walker, Saint-George, The Black Mozart, The French Revolution, WordPress

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George

Reviving a Legend: Three of six videos (1)
(biographical videos)

 
© Micheline Walker
September 14th, 2012
WordPress
 
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