Offered by Stéphane Renard Fine Art
REQUEST INFORMATION
7 7/8” x 12 1/4'” (20 x 31 cm) Framed (45.7 x 56.6 cm)
Inscribed "Veranda am Canal und Orangeriehaus im Herzogisches Park zu Sagan" below the view on the album leaf
Provenance: Dorothée de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duchess of Sagan
Collection of the Dukes of Talleyrand - Château de Valençay
“Views of Sagan" sale, Sotheby's Monaco, March 4, 1989, no. 66.
This gouache is a moving souvenir of Sagan, one of Lower Silesia's most beautiful estates, whose orangery is depicted here in its heyday, on a fine summer's day. The 1809 marriage of Dorothée von Biron, Princess of Courland, to Alexandre-Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord brought Sagan into the property of this illustrious French family, and explains the presence of an album presenting views of Sagan, from which this gouache comes, in the library of the Château de Valençay (the French seat of the Dukes of Talleyrand family), until its dispersal in 1989...
1. Description of the artwork
This gouache shows an overall view of the peninsula surrounded by a canal adjacent to the Bober River, on which the orangery of Sagan was built. This vast building with its 21 windows can be seen beyond an access path protected by a veranda covered with climbing plants. In neoclassical style, the orangery's facade is punctuated by three pavilions topped by an attic, surrounding two long galleries. In front is a flower garden with rectangular beds, fountains, and potted orange trees.
This orangerie was erected in 1796 in a neoclassical style by the architect Christian Schulze (1748 – 1831). The layout of the two corner pavilions reminds the Bagatelle pavilion before its extension by Richard Wallace (last photo of the gallery), and bears witness to the French influence in the architecture.
We have been unable to find any biographical information on E. Hackert, a draughtsman and lithographer whose “Views of Sagan” seem to be the main achievement.
2. The Duchy of Sagan
Founded in the 13th century, the Duchy of Sagan was owned by several great Germanic families before being purchased in 1786 by Pierre von Biron (1724-1800), Duke of Courlande. It belonged successively to his two daughters Wilhelmine and Pauline, before being purchased in 1845 by his youngest daughter Dorothée, wife of Alexandre-Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord (the second Duke of Talleyrand and the second Duke of Dino). A diploma from the King of Prussia, dated January 6, 1845, invested her as Duchess of Sagan. On her death in 1862, her son Napoléon-Louis obtained authorization by imperial decree to use this foreign title in France. The title continued to be held in France by the latter's son Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord (1832-1910), then by his grandsons Hélie (1859 - 1937) and Boson (1867 - 1952) de Talleyrand-Périgord, then by Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, a cousin of the former, with whom the title of Duc de Sagan was finally extinguished in 1968.
It was with Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord (the fourth Duke of Talleyrand) that the Sagan name took on a double literary dimension. Marcel Proust introduced the "Prince of Sagan " as one of the secondary characters in the imaginary society of In Search of Lost Time which he created after the aristocratic world that fascinated him . And it is from this Proustian character that the writer Françoise Quoirez in turn derived the pseudonym under which she became world-famous after the publication in 1954 of Hello Sadness ...
3. Splendors and miseries of the Sagan estate
The house and park at Sagan were the object of particular attention from the Duchess of Sagan, who made it her principal residence after purchasing the estate in 1845. It is likely that the album from which our gouache is taken was commissioned by her around 1850 to celebrate this renovation. The park, enlarged by successive acquisitions to reach a surface area of 230 hectares, had been magnificently landscaped by the Duchess, who had taken advice from the specialist of the time, Prince Pückler-Muskau, whose Branitz estate was located near Cottbus, some fifty kilometers from Sagan. As for the house itself (4th photo of the gallery), it is an austere, U-shaped building surrounded by a dry moat, a brick fortress with a tiled roof. It contained about a hundred rooms.
The other "Views of Sagan" (reproduction in the gallery), four of which have recently come up for sale, testify to the refinement of its interior decoration.
On her death in 1862, the Duchess of Sagan, who had lived mainly at Sagan since acquiring the estate, was buried there alongside her sister Wilhelmine. The house was destroyed in 1945 during violent fights between Russian and German troops, and rebuilt after the war by the Polish government as a cultural center with multi-purpose rooms hosting wedding receptions. The orangery is said to have disappeared...
4. Framing
Sold unframed at the Monaco sale, our view is now framed in a modern pitch-pin frame with black fillets, in the spirit of the frames used to frame prints in the 19th century.
Main bibliographical reference :
Sagan und Sprottau in der schlesischen Geschichte “Les vues de Sagan » - Bergstadtverlag Wilhelm Gottlied Korn – Würzburg 1992
Delevery information :
The prices indicated are the prices for purchases at the gallery.
Depending on the price of the object, its size and the location of the buyer we are able to offer the best transport solution which will be invoiced separately and carried out under the buyer's responsibility.
