de Bonneval

An amateur artist, Gabriel André de Bonneval is little known today. From a family of knightly extraction admitted to the court in 1786 and 1789, he studied in the Royal Military School in Effiat, probably at the same time as Louis Charles Antoine Desaix who was destined to become a great general of Napoleonic campaigns. Bonneval then became a page of the Grande Ecurie in 1783. Sous-lieutenant in Clermont in 1787, captain in the regiment of Poitou and the regiment of Berry during the Revolution, and captain of the Horse Guards of the constitutional guard of the King, Bonneval was seriously wounded for valiantly defending the estate of Chantilly, which earned him the recognition of the prince de Condé and the granting of the order of Saint-Louis. Barely recovered, he was imprisoned for fifteen months, after which period he was released by his prison guard and managed to emigrate. According to the Illustrations de la Noblesse Européenne, “during the creation of stud farms in 1806, he was sought after by Napoleon and since that time until 1832, he had commanded with the titles of directeur and inspecteur-général adjoint in Tarbes, Pompadour, and in Pin”. He supposedly retired to Saint-Myon in Auvergne where, as d’Ormancey wrote, he dedicated himself to “going through his notes and drawings of the stud farms[1]”.

The same Bonneval, a man of arms and horses, was also a painter. This is confirmed not only by his signature but also proved by the testimony of his descendants who own some of his paintings of flowers and horses. It must be remembered that military schools on the model of the École polytechnique trained their pupils in drawing and often kept their collections for educational purposes. The importance of the teaching of drawing and “lavis de plan” (topographical drawing) for all students has been emphasized in the studies dedicated to the Royal Military School in Effiat[2]. The most privileged, to whom the Count of Bonneval must have belonged, also benefited from painting and music lessons. This artistic skill probably proved useful in his function at the head of the stud farms. There is a series of lithographs after horse paintings by his hand. Each horse in it, of a different race, is depicted in front of a landscape in relation to it. The Circassian horse, for example, stands in front of Istanbul. One of them is represented in front of the Stud Farm in Pin clearly recognizable in the background, for which there is a preparatory drawing in wash (obviously in reverse) in a private collection.

The handbook of the 1810 Salon lists a flower painting by Bonneval, pupil of Van Dael; it must most certainly be the present painting. Arrived in France in 1786, Jan Frans Van Dael had a rapid success, especially appreciated by the empresses Joséphine and Marie-Louise. In his studio in the rue des Feuillantines, he had a school of painting for ladies, represented in a painting by Philippe Van Brée (Worcester gallery), but also trained some of his compatriots coming to try their luck in Paris. Although it appears difficult to understand how and when the director of the stud farms could have benefitted from his training, the influence of this painter from Antwerp is obvious in the present Bonneval’s work which strongly reminds some of his compositions such as the Tomb of Julie or the Offering to Flora (Rueil-Malmaison, inv. MM 95.16.1 and MM. D. 16). The species often used by van Dael are those which we identify in Bonneval’s painting. The master seems also to have transmitted to him, other than botanical taste and precision, a specific manner of composing bouquets, which was characteristic of his works of the beginning of the 19th century: the types of bright colours, especially whites and yellows, are gathered at the centre and framed by the red flowers alternating with the blue and mauve ones, while the roses are found in the lower part of the bouquet. The butterfly and a bee, natural companions of flowers, are a chance for the painter to animate his composition and to show off his skill.

As drawing and painting had been a widespread family practice until the nineteenth century, it is not always easy to identify the production of many amateur artists of the time. However, the precise draughtsmanship of each flower, freshness of the composition and ambitious format of the present work reveal a talent rather rare among most amateurs, certainly the result of a serious training or very diligent practice, if not a remarkable talent.