Carmontelle Au Jardin Des Illusions

Great observer of the last years of the French Ancien Regime, Louis Carogis, called Carmontelle (1717-1806), made a very lucid but kind portrait of his society. First topographer, then Duke of Chartres's reader, living in the shadow of one of the greatest families in France, the d'Orleans, draughtsman of the famous Parc Monceau in Paris, Carmontelle is the witness of the Age of Enlightenment and fully embodies the spirit of his 18th Century. Only drawings and proverbs, comic playlets created to divert the d'Orleans' guests, remain from this man, discreet and so tenacious than he realized more than 500 portraits of the most important persons of his century.

Laurence Chatel de Brancion, PhD in history and author of several books on the period between 1750 and 1850 signs here the first biography on Carmontelle and gives, through the illustrations, an idea of his full of humor look.