A Jacobite Gazetteer - France

Montpellier - Musée Fabre

This museum was founded in 1825 by François-Xavier Fabre, the companion in her old age of Queen Louise (widow of King Charles III). ¹

Among the very large number of paintings displayed here is a portrait of King Henry IX and I by Anton Raphael Mengs. ² The oil painting on canvas measures 44 cm high and 35 cm wide; presumably it is a study for a portrait which was not completed. The painting was purchased in Rome by Nicolas-Didier Boguet on behalf of François-Xavier Fabre. ³ There is a similar portrait of Henry preserved in the Fabbrica di San Pietro in the Vatican. ⁴

King Henry IX and I

The museum owns two small oil portraits by Fabre of Queen Louise and her companion Count Vittorio Alfieri. ⁵ They are both oval in rectangular frames and measure 32 cm X 25.5 cm. Both were painted in 1796, and are somewhat less romantic than the portraits of 1793 now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. Louise, wearing a green shawl and hat, is shown sketching; Alfieri is wrapped in a large black cloak with his right (writing) hand showing. Fabre donated the portraits to the museum in 1825, but retained them in his possession until his death in 1837.

Queen Louise

Count Vittorio Alfieri

Beau Pyrrhus

In 1825 Fabre also donated an oil painting of Beau Pyrrhus, Queen Louise's favourite dog Pyrrhus. ⁶ Fabre painted this work in 1823 and gave it to Louise as a birthday gift on August 25th that year; it measures 65 cm X 98 cm. The black and white dog wearing a gold collar (on which the artist has signed his name) is shown lying in a rocky landscape. At the right of the painting on the rock face behind the dog is the following inscription, "Portrait du Beau Pyrrhus, offert à Mme la Comtesse Louise d'Albany, en reconnissance de son grand amour pour lui. Florence, 25 août 1823." (Portrait of Beautiful Pyrrhus, given to Madame the Countess Louise of Albany, in recognition of her great love for him. Florence, August 25, 1823). Pyrrhus also appears in a painting by Fabre now in the museum of the Fondazione 'Centro di Studi Alfieriani' in Asti.

The museum owns a pastel portrait of Queen Louise attributed to Hugh Douglas Hamilton. ⁷ She is shown wearing her hair loose about her shoulders and covered with a lace veil. There is also a portrait by Hugh Douglas Hamilton of King Charles III's daughter, Charlotte, Duchess of Albany. ⁸

Pastel of Queen Louise, attributed to Hugh Douglas Hamilton

The museum also owns an oil portrait of Don Carlos Miguel Fitz-James Stuart y Fernández de Híjar-Silva, 7th Duke of Berwick and 14th Duke of Alba. Don Carlos was the great-great-great grandson of the 1st Duke of Berwick, illegitimate son of King James II and VII; he was also the grandson of Princess Caroline of Stolberg-Gedern, younger sister of Queen Louise. In 1818 the Duke of Berwick and Alba was in Florence where he was painted by Fabre. ⁹

In January 1996 the museum acquired another oil portrait of Queen Louise by Fabre; the painting measures 34.5 cm X 27 cm and dates from 1812. ¹⁰

The museum also owns the library of Queen Louise as well as a number of other paintings which were formerly in her collection. These include Fabre's Anne Bermingham, later Lady Charlemont, as Psyche (1796); ¹¹ Fabre's The Vision of Saul (1803); ¹² Fabre's Ugo Foscolo (1813); ¹³ and Fabre's The Death of Narcissus (1814). ¹⁴

The museum is located at 39 boulevard Bonne Nouvelle. Open Tuesday to Friday from 9.00 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 9.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.; closed Monday. Entrance fee: 20F.

(Telephone: 33 04 67 14 83 00; email: musee.fabre@ville-montpellier.fr).

Notes

¹ The French painter, printer and collector, François-Xavier Fabre was born in Montpellier in 1766, and died in the same town in 1837. He studied under Jacques-Louis David and in 1787 won the Prix de Rome. In 1793 he moved to Florence where he was introduced to Queen Louise by the Bishop of Derry, Lord Howard de Walden (called "Earl of Bristol"). Fabre's brother, Edouard Fabre, was physician to Louise's companion, Count Vittorio Alfieri. After Alfieri's death in 1803, Fabre became Louise's companion. When Louise died in 1824, she left the majority of her estate to Fabre. In 1830 he received the title of baron ad personam from King Charles X of France, brother-in-law of King Charles IV and King Victor.

² Anton Raphael Mengs was born at Usti in Bohemia in 1728, and died at Rome in 1779. He painted portraits of Pope Clement XIII, several cardinals, and numerous princes. He also painted portraits and other paintings for a number of Englishmen and Scotsmen, cf. Steffi Roettgen, Anton Raphael Mengs, 1728-1779, and his British Patrons (London: Zwemmer, 1993).

³ Steffi Roettgen, Mengs: La scoperta del Neoclassico (Venezia: Marsilio, 2001), 258.

⁴ "Il card. Enrico Stuart, duca di York, Arciprete della basilica Vatican (1725-1807)", La Basilca di S. Pietro, Notizario Mensile 10, n. 7 (Luglio 1998): 2.

⁵ François-Xavier Fabre, XXXI Festival dei Due Mondi - Spoleto (Roma: De Luca Edizioni d'Arte, 1988), 46.

⁶ Ibid., 53. Louise's dog Pyrrhus also appears in another painting by Fabre, "Oedipus on Mount Citheron", now in the Museo Alfieriano in Asti.

⁷ John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, National Portrait Gallery (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977), 3. Hugh Douglas Hamilton was born in Dublin in 1739 and died in the same city in 1808. He moved to Italy in 1779 and lived in Florence from 1783 to 1785. Several other Stuart portraits are ascribed to him including an oil of King Charles III, an oil of Queen Louise, and a pastel of King Henry IX, all three purchased in 1873 by the National Gallery in London.

⁸ Kerslake, 3.

⁹ François-Xavier Fabre, 12. The same source says that Fabre painted a portrait of "Doña Maria-Elena de Palafox y Silva", and describes the Duke of Berwick as her brother. Perhaps this is a portrait of the Duke of Berwick's mother Doña Maria Teresa Fernandez de Silva y Palafox, who died in Florence April 29, 1818; this portrait is now in the collection of the Duque de Infantado in Madrid.

¹⁰ http://www.ac-montpellier.fr/arts_plastiques/fabre/chantiers.htm.

¹¹ François-Xavier Fabre, 45. Anne Bermingham was the youngest daughter and co-heir of William Bermingham, of Ross Hill, co. Galway; in 1802 she married Francis William Caulfield, 5th Viscount Charlemont (called "Earl of Charlemont"). Queen Louise left this painting to Fabre at her death in 1824; in 1825 Fabre donated it to the museum.

¹² Ibid., 48-49. Queen Louise left this painting to Fabre at her death in 1824; in 1825 Fabre donated it to the museum.

¹³ Ibid., 52. Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) was an Italian poet; in 1812 he met Queen Louise who became his patron. Cf. Herbert M. Vaughan, The Last Stuart Queen, Louise, Countess of Albany: Her Life & Letters (London: Duckworth, 1910), especially 293-320. Fabre painted this work at the request of Queen Louise who kept it in her collection for three years before sending it to Foscolo. It was donated to the museum in the 1930s.

¹⁴ Ibid., 52. Queen Louise willed this painting to the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, but at her death in 1824 it was kept by Fabre; he donated it to the museum in 1825.

Image 1 (King Henry IX and I): Roettgen, Mengs: La scoperta del Neoclassico, 259.

Image 2 (Queen Louise): François-Xavier Fabre, XXXI Festival dei Due Mondi - Spoleto (Roma: De Luca Edizioni d'Arte, 1988), tavole 14.

Image 3 (Count Vittorio Alfieri): Ibid., tavole 13.

Image 4 (Beau Pyrrhus): Ibid., tavole 37.

Image 5 (Pastel of Queen Louise): Kerslake, II, plate 8.