Louis Carrogis de Carmontelle was a French artist, architect, dramatist, set designer, and author. Among his best-known artworks is his watercolor Leopold Mozart and his two children, Wolfgang Amadeus and Maria-Anna, known as 'Nannerl'. He was famous for his portraits and for his plays, which usually dealt with moral chronicles and comedies. Even though he belonged to a low-income family, Carmontelle eventually made a modest income through his association with the nobility and his career as an entertainer. During his life, he was a prolific portraitist of the upper class, and among his subjects, there are philosophers such as David Hume.
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Louis (Carrogis) de Carmontelle
Louis Carrogis de Carmontelle was a French artist, architect, dramatist, set designer, and author. Among his best-known artworks is his watercolor Leopold Mozart and his two children, Wolfgang Amadeus and Maria-Anna, known as 'Nannerl'. He was famous for his portraits and for his plays, which usually dealt with moral chronicles and comedies. Even though he belonged to a low-income family, Carmontelle eventually made a modest income through his association with the nobility and his career as an entertainer. During his life, he was a prolific portraitist of the upper class, and among his subjects, there are philosophers such as David Hume.
Early Life
Louis de Carmontelle was born in August 1717, in Paris, France, into a modest living family as his father was a simple bootmaker. There is no record for any artistic education at an early age, making most historians suppose that Louis Carrogis was a self-taught artist.
Carmontelle studied geometry and drawing, and at the age of 23, he was qualified to receive the title of engineer. He soon entered the Chateau de Dampierre under the service of the Duke of Chevreuse and the Duke of Luynes, where he also taught drawing and mathematics to the children.
Military Experience and Working for the Nobility
In 1758, Carmontelle came under the service of Comte Pons de Saint-Maurice as a topographical engineer. During his leisure time, he kept making sketches of soldiers and other war scenes.
In addition to duties as an engineer, Carmontelle was a creative and avid writer, creating several tales and farces, a play with absurd humor and situations. His writing prowess was noticed, and in 1763, he came under service of the Duke of Orleans, Philippe I, as a lecteur and for doing reading services. He moved to Paris to work for the Duke's family.
Life in Paris as a Court Entertainer
With the artist's relationship with nobles growing, soon Carrogis became in charge of other services. He was gifted with a quick-witted nature and had the right way with words and humor. He became responsible for developing theatrical performances for the family.
Despite Louis Carrogis' job not allowing him to have his meals with the rest of the family and being seen hierarchically as a lower employee, his open personality and way made him intimate with Philippe I. He frequently spent the night drinking with the noblemen. The existence of the meetings is supported through the notes of Madame de Genlis.
The French artist's function for the Duke of Orleans allowed him a lot of creative space and expression. In addition to writing and directing plays and shows for court parties, Carmontelle also created costumes and decorated the scenery. While doing one of his assignments for an event, he developed a way of making moving transparent backgrounds to present some scenes.
While coming up with new inventive ways for his spectacles, Carmontelle developed a new theatrical play genre. It was called the proverbe dramatique, in which a scene of light comedy was structured to be a starting point to theatrical improvisation. Non-actors participated in the dynamics and were chosen from the public, while the rest of the viewers had to guess the scene's moral intentions.
The artist was dedicated to theater and writing as he was to painting and drawings. It's safe to assume that his humble background offered him a perfect perspective to the absurd and comic of nobility's life and practices. He also wrote some plays for Marie-Madeleine Guimard, the famous ballerina who dominated the stages during Louis XVI's reign. Some of his pieces were accompanied by Jean-Benjamin de La Borde's music, a composer appreciated by the French upper classes.
The Duke's Draughtsman
Louis de Carmontelle was also a prolific artist, producing several caricatures and portraits of the French nobility. Today, there are around 750 portraits attributed to him. One of his best-known artworks is watercolor Leopold Mozart (1719-87) and his two children, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91) and Maria-Anna Mozart, known as 'Nannerl' (1751-1829).
Carmontelle's work can be understood as a part of Rococo. While he didn't have a formal education like many of his peers, his production is categorized as Rococo as he depicted the French nobility's daily life and its interactions with nature. Since he drew many nobles and historical characters, the painter's work now acts as a documentation of their activities and can be considered history painting. The historical painting of Louis Carrogis consists mostly of drawings and watercolors. The medium allowed him to turn base sketches into complete works and a shorter time to finish his artworks than if he favored oil painting.
His few productions of oil on canvas are, curiously enough, religious pieces. Among his most remarkable paintings is Carmontelle (1717-1806) giving the Keys of the Parc Monceau in Paris to the Duke of Chartres (1747-93), which breaks away from his usual profile perspective and adopts a landscape composition. The scene narrates the end of a garden project that was commissioned by the Duke of Chartres.
His almost cartoonish style, while not in line with the artistic aspirations of the art circuit, was admired by his subjects and the Duke of Orleans' circle's surrounding figures. Baron Grimm, writing about the artist's oeuvre, praises his ability to quickly portray the posture, the personality, and the spirit of his models. The nobleman also highlighted the artistic compromise of Louis Carrogis, who frequently drew and built a mosaic of the French capital's social life. Among his subjects were personalities such as novelist Laurence Sterne, The Actor David Garrick, Caroline de Genlis Comtesse de Woesting, and Madame Rousseau et Madame Rousseau.
In 1769, a close friend of Diderot and Voltaire had his father unjustly condemned to torture. Baron Grimm was also a close affiliate of Étienne Noël Damilaville and helped him gather signs of an international petition and gather support even in Russia. Carmontelle helped to provide a drawing, which was reproduced into an etching and given to the supporters of the cause. The image depicts Étienne's family together in jail, and Voltaire praised it so much, he bought 12 copies.
Seeing the great affection that the upper class and intellectuals devoted to the artist, as his clientele or even personal friends, Louis de Carmontelle became a rather distinguished figure in French high society and nobility, despite his modest beginning.
Last Years and Death
Following the death of Duke d'Orleans in 1785, Carmontelle became under service of his son Duke of Chartres, teaching drawing to his daughter Adelaide and son Louis-Phillippe of France, who would become both the next and the last king of France. After the Duke of Chartres was killed by the revolutionaries, the artist moved to a small apartment where he lived for the rest of his life.
Louis de Carmontelle died in Paris in December 1806.
Legacy
Carmontelle's body of work is the closest we can get to the last decades of the decaying Parisian nobility. Even though he was near a life of excess - which didn't necessarily belong to him - he never cynically pictured his subjects. It is also an early intersection of cartoons, political art, and figurative art, which later in England had a tremendous boost by William Hogarth's career.
The artist used a rather specific compositional arrangement to portray most of his figures: they are seen by their profile, usually facing forward silently in contemplation or the midst of daily activity. Most of his pictures use this method. Even though he had a varied group of characters, he insisted on drawing them in the same way, manifesting a democratic approach and not one that glamorized his patrons.
During his later years, the artist pioneered a new form of showing paintings in motion, an ancestor to the magic lantern. The invention consisted of two wooden boxes that slowly rolled a landscape painting. The daylight passed through the canvas and gave the observant an impression of walking in nature.
His contributions to French culture can't only be pinpointed to visual arts. Carmontelle was first and foremost an entertainer, and the guests praised his shows in the Duke d'Orleans parties. During the dramatic acts, he participated as an actor and improvised with the part of the public that was chosen to act. Louis wrote more than 100 proverbes.
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