Le Musée français is a French publication of engravings issued in fascicles in Paris between 1803 and 1824. It had three successive titles, Le Musée français, Le Musée Napoléon and Le Musée royal, and consists of a total of 504 large-format engravings of paintings and classical sculptures in the museum at the Louvre during this era. Printed on large in-folio sheets and issued with commentary texts and prefatory essays in letterpress, it is usually bound in six volumes and is treated as two separate publications in library cataloging and enumerative bibliography: e.g., the library catalogue of The Royal Academy of Arts (London) -- Le Musée français (4 vols.) and Le Musée royal (2 vols.).See also the bibliographies: Jacques Charles Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres, 5e éd., t. 4 (Paris, 1863), cols. 1335-36 and t. 6, col.561, no. 9370, and Georges Vicaire, Manuel de l'amateur des livres du XIXe siècle (Paris, 1894–1910), vol. 5, cols. 1229–1231. The issue of individual livraisons (fascicles) is recorded in the legal deposit for prints in Paris (le dépot légal de l’estampe) up to 1812Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Estampes et des Photographies, Rés., Ye10 pet. in-fol. After 1812, the issue of livraisons is recorded in the section for books and perioidicals in the journal La Bibliographie de la France.
The project was initiated and directed by the engraver Pierre-François LaurentSee also Roger Portalis and Henri Beraldi, Les Graveurs du dix-huitième siècle, t. 2 (Paris, 1880-82), pp. 558-60. with assistance and financial backing of his in-law until 1809, when the two of them died and the direction passed to Laurent's son Henri, who was also an engraver. Also Dictionnaire de biographie français, fasc. CXIV (2001), col. 1421-22. Benefitting from a governmental loan signed personally by Bonaparte, a new subscription with a second series of plates was started in 1812 under the new title, Le Musée Napoléon.George McKee, "Une Mesure napoléonienne d'aide à la gravure", Nouvelles de l'estampe, no. 120 (déc. 1991), pp. 6-17. Its issue was suspended at the collapse of the First French Empire; and when it resumed in 1817, this title was replaced by a third one, reflecting the new name of the museum, Le Musée royal. It continued to be directed by Henri Laurent, who received the official appointment "graveur du Cabinet du Roi"Dictionnaire du biographie français, fasc. CXIV (2001), col. 1421-22. from the new King Louis XVIII.
The first series, issued in 80 fascicles between 1803 and 1812 under the title Le Musée français, contains 343 unnumbered plates and their commentaries, along with 4 prefatory essays. The second series, usually referenced by the title it received in 1817, contains 161 unnumbered plates, their commentaries and two essays and was issued in 40 fascicles between 1812 and 1824.For details about the history of the publication of these works, the catalogue of the Royal Academy of Arts, as noted above, refers to G. McKee, “The Musée français and the Musée royal: a history of the publication of an album of fine engravings, with a catalogue of plates and discussion of similar ventures,” MLS thesis, University of Chicago, 1981. The Musée français has also been studied by Caecilie Weissert, Ein Kunstbuch? le Musée français (Stuttgart: Engel, 1994) and Robert Verhoogt, “Art reproduction and the nation,” in Art crossing borders (Leiden, 2019), pp. 311-12; Italian contributors are discussed by Vittorio Sgarbi, et al., Felice Giani : maître du néoclassicisme italien à la cour de Napoléon (Alessandria, 2010); on contributions by the artist J.A.D. Ingres, see Sarah Betzer, “Ingres Shadows,” Art Bulletin, vol. 95 (2013), pp. 78-101 and Mehdi Korchane, "Un Laboratoire des ombres: dessiner pour la gravure," in Ingres avant Ingres: dessiner pour peindre (Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans, 2021). A good bibliography of other scholarship on the subject is provided by Peter Fuhring at the website of the The plates were often exhibited by their engravers as individual art works at the Salons du Louvre, but they were not distributed separately apart from the subscriptions. They show a diversity of styles of engraving, employing burin with and without the assistance of etching and stipple,E.g. Paul Chassard, Pausanais français, ou Description du Salon de 1806 (Paris, 1808), pp. 504-505; altogether 107 plates were exhibited at the Salons between 1804 and 1824 – see McKee, 1981, Appendice 4, pp. 141-43. Individual plates were often singled out for praise, as well, in press notices of the appearance of fascicles, e.g. Le Moniteur, 11 juin 1805 (p. 1084). A generous selection of examples treated as individual artworks may be examined with detailed catalogue information at the British Museum online catalogue. as was practiced at this period in order to represent narrative painting, portraiture and landscape—and also classical sculpture—prior to the invention of photography.
The commentary texts and essays were written by Simon-Célestin Croze-Magnan (until 1806), Toussaint-Bernard Émeric-David (between 1806-1812), Ennio Quirino Visconti (1806 until his death in 1818), François Guizot (between 1812 and 1824) and Charles le comte de Clarac (after 1818).A re-edition of the engravings of Le Musée français in 1829, employed entirely new texts by Jean Duchesne l’aîné; the same texts were also used as commentaries for the outline prints of paintings and sculptures published in Le Musee de peinture et de sculpture of Etienne Achille Réveil.
The essays and commentaries by Emeric-David, Visconti, Guizot and le come de Clarac were subsequently re-edited and reprinted with their other writings, without illustrations.
Reception by contemporaries It was one of several publications devoted to illustration of the paintings and classical sculptures seized by revolutionary governments for permanent display in the newly established Museum at the Louvre.G. McKee, "The Publication of Bonaparte's Louvre", Gazette des Beaux-Arts, s. 6, t. 104 (nov. 1984), pp. 165-172. On the museum and its collections in this era, see Andrew McClellan, Inventing the Louvre: art, politics, and the origin of the modern museum in 18th century Paris (Berkeley: 2009) and Cecil Gould, Trophy of conquest: the Musee Napoleon and the creation of the Louvre (London, 1965). Le Musée français was specially esteemed for the large dimension of its engravings which offered a rare occasion for display of the pictorial richness of the engraver's art; each would have required months or sometimes years to complete. Over 150 engravers from across Europe were employed in their production, utlilizing preparatory drawings by over 60 draftsmen, including some of the finest hands of their generation.McKee, 1981, Appendix 6 and Appendix 7 contain a catalogue of the engravings and indexes of the artists who produced them; the draftsmen have been studied by McKee, "L'Art de dessiner l'art: Ingres, Bouillion, Dutertre et autres copistes au service de la gravure vers 1800," La Revue du Louvre, 1995, nos. 5/6 (décembre), pp. 73-90. Its appearance was welcomed in the official newspaper, Le Moniteur, as an important artistic achievement in its own right, more worthy of public attention than any similar work since the origin of the art of engraving, itself.Le Moniteur, 5 juin 1803, p. 1158 (letter of Nicolas Ponce). Soon afterwards the Museum Director, Vivant Denon, praised the Musée français as a “monument des arts” and ended the Museum's own official program to engrave the art works in its collections.Le Moniteur, 8 sept. 1803, pp. 1547-48. On the Museum's project to engrave its paintings, see Mémoires du visible : cuivres et estampes de la Chalcographie du Louvre (Réunion des Musées nationaux, 2002). In governmental reports, as well as in press reviews, its preparation was credited to have single-handedly revived the practice of burin engraving in France and become the source of "a great school" in its encouragement of the development of skills which were deemed important for the advancement of art and national commerce: the simulation of the qualities of highly regarded art works by means of print, in a manner suitable for the transmission of information, artistic inspiration and memorialisation.See official reports of the section des Beaux-Arts of the Institut by J. LeBreton, ”Notice des travaux de la Classe des Beaux-Arts, ” Nouvelles des arts, t. 4 (1804), p. 44 and C.C. Bervic, ”La Gravure, ” edited by U. van de Sandt, Rapports à l’Empereur sur le progrès des sciences, des lettres et des arts depuis 1789 [Paris: Belin, 1989], pp. 240-45; the popular success is evident from journalism: Le Moniteur, 5 juin 1803 and 19 mars 1804; Journal de débats, 30 mai 1804 (p. 4); Mercure de France, 11 oct. 1806 (p. 88); Journal de Paris, 1 mars 1808 (p. 413); Journal de l’Empire, 30 août 1813. On the revival of “la gravure historique” in the early 19th century attributed to the influence of plates in this publication, see Georges Duplessis, Les Merveilles de la gravure (Paris, 1869), pp. 372-78.
In the bibliographic literature it was commonly described as “collection magnifique.”Brunet and Vicaire, as cited; also, Henri Cohen, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siècle, 6e éd. (Paris, 1912), cols. 743-45, ”magnifique ouvrage.” Brunet's repertory contains no work having a comparable quantity of large format, fully realized reproductive engravings;Cf. the bibliography of this kind of publication in Brunet, t. 6, “Table Méthodique,” cols. 561-64. and according to the official juries of the Exposition de 1806 and the Exposition de 1819, the quality of execution was "perfect".McKee, 1991, p. 8, note 9; a judgement reiterated by the jury at the Exposition de 1819, paraphrased in Le Moniteur, 17 fév. 1824: “the most perfect to have occurred since the existence of the art of engraving.”
Production Undertaken as a commercial enterprise, the publication remained in private hands throughout its long history, despite its national prominence and considerable subsidation by the government. This “unofficial” status enabled its production during an era of violent political instability and warfare, and it facilitated the administration of hundreds of commissions of considerable expense to artists of various nationalities without the political scrutiny required of governmental patronage and awards.