Auguste-Louis de Rossel-Wikipedia

Auguste-Louis de Rossel , lord of Taillebois, born on June 22, 1736 in Dompierre-sur-Mer in Charente-Maritime and died in Paris on February 27, 1804 ^{[ first ]} , is an aristocrat, naval officer and French painter of XVIII ^{It is} century. He is known for his series of paintings on the American war of independence.

Son of Christophe de Rossel, captain of the King’s vessels, and Louise Massiot de la Motte, Louis-Auguste, knight of Rossel, comes from the younger branch of the Marquis de Cercy family, the one who has never worn the Name of Cycy and which is from the Rochefort region ^{[ 2 ]} .

He married Rose Héard (sister of Pierre François Héard du Taillis) then a young Brestoise, Françoise Guérin, with whom he will have a daughter Elizabeth in 1778.

Military career ^{[ 3 ]} [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

• 1751 Navy guard in Rochefort
• 1752 embarked on the frigate The Friponne
• 1754 embarked on the Eagle
• 1755 embarked on the Inflexible
• 1756 embarked on the frigate Aquilon
• 1756 embarked on the Duke of Burgundy
• 1757 embarked on the Saint Michel
• 1759 embraced on l’Aragon
• 1760 embarked on the corvette Sardinia
• 1761 on board in Toulon for Constantinople on the frigate bird
• 1762 embarked on the Content
• 1765 Appointed Lieutenant vessel
• 1766 boarded in Rochefort on the Slide
• 1770 on board as a second commander on the Bizarre
• 1773 Appointed knight of Saint-Louis
• 1775 boarded in Brest on the frigate Zephir
• 1779 The king authorized him to retire and appoints him captain.

Navy painting [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

After a 28 -year -old career in the navy, including 14 in campaign, Rossel retired in 1779 due to illness. He then launched into painting. In 1778, he produced paintings from the fighting Concorde , from Juno of Triton and some Beautiful hen . In 1779, he painted the battles of the Juno and some Kind in front of Plymouth, of the Minerve to Dominique, and the commitment of the Motte-Picquet squadron for Fort-Royal de la Martinique.

At the correspondence fair of 1786, he presented a view of Malta and one from Constantinople ^{[ 4 ]} .

Louis XVI designed in 1786 the project to perpetuate the main naval victories won on the canvas won from 1778 to 1783 and he entrusted the project to the Knight of Rossel ^{[ 5 ]} . The first two paintings in this series produced by Rossel are The fight of Mr. Le Bailly de Suffren in Baye de la Praya And The fight of M. de la Motte Picquet in sight of Fort Royal . These paintings are intended to be exhibited in the instruction rooms of the three large ports of Brest, Toulon and Rochefort. Rossel receives the additional command of sixteen paintings and thirty two copies. In August 1791, he produced his sixteenth and final painting in August 1791 Gondelour’s fight . He had to intervene three times with the National Assembly between 1790 and 1792 to obtain the payment of his fees and he refused to deliver the tables he kept at home. It was not until 1802, that the first consul gave its partial settlement of the American War series and that the State officially became the owner of the tables. These paintings have never joined the instructions for the ports of Brest, Toulon and Rochefort. Thirteen of the sixteen original paintings and twelve copies are entrusted to the National Museum of Marine from 1943 ^{[ 6 ]} .

Among its many tables, three of them are the subject of a special order of three fights in Quebec and the Guard , this at the request of the Minister of the Navy. The first reserved for the room of King Louis XVI; This one (canvas) seems to have been offered by the king to Marshal of Castries in 1789, the second was sent to the widow of Commander Charles Louis du Couëdic and the third to the Knight of Lostanges. The engravings of this table were only produced in 1792. It also immortalized the fights of Scipon , from Nymph ^{[ 7 ]} and of the Amphitrite .

You should know that Thomas-Pierre du Couëdic, known as “the elder”, nephew of Charles-Louis, and also any young officer under his orders during this fight, is called shortly after climbing the ship of his maternal uncle Nymph where, when he was approached against the HMS Flora And, wounded by a spike, drops the rope and falls between the two buildings that crush it.

Archives [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

• Michel Vergé-Francesco ( you. ), Maritime History Dictionary , Robert Laffont editions, coll. “Bouquins”, 2002 (ISBN  978-2-221-08751-0 )
• David Carol, Dictionary of French -language artists in North America on Google Books , p. 706
• (in) Evelyn from Rostaing McMann, Biographical index of artists in Canada on Google Books
• Guard
• Jean-Yves Besselièvre (DIR), Le Port de la Liberté: Brest at the time of American independence, Paris: Locus Solus, National Museum of the Marine, 2016, p. 106-117
• Georges Lacour-Gayet , The military navy of France during the reign of Louis XV , Honored publisher champion, 1910 ( first ^re ed. 1902) ( read online )
• Georges Lacour-Gayet , The Military Navy of France during the reign of Louis XVI , Paris, honored champion, 1905 , 719 p. (BNF  30709972 , read online )