Older Larrey and the company he keeps.
Orientalism is in fashion, people support the Greeks in their struggle for independence against the Turks, Gérard de Nerval is preparing his trip to the East, Victor Hugo has published Les Orientales. Alexandre Dumas also seeks documentation because his editor of the Bureau de l'Echo des Feuilletons is anxious to publish the periodicals that his subscribers demand. Who moreover, better than Larrey, could inform him about the regions of the eastern Mediterranean?
{Alexandre Dumas, photography by Nadar.}
At Dumas’, the Larreys meet Baron Taylor, an informed art lover. Commissioner of the Théâtre-Français, he accepted that Hernani be staged and returned from Spain where he bought on behalf of the Louvre the Velasquez or Murillo paintings that Soult had not been able to appropriate to resell to the English. In 1836, he took part in the erection of the Luxor Obelisk on the Place de la Concorde.
{Le Baron Taylor}
Of the caliber of Vivant Denon, he is a man whom H. Larrey admires to the point of saying about him:
“One still listens to him when he doesn’t speak anymore!”
There is also Franz Liszt, with his emaciated face, his long, already silver hair while he is not thirty years old. Famous for the power of his compositions, the virtuosity of his technique, he is also passionate about philosophy and human physiology and has found in Larrey an excellent interlocutor whom he can question at will.
{Franz Liszt in 1843}
When he stays in Paris, the prince of Metternich, the man who fixed in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna the destiny of Europe for one hundred years, seeks the company of Larrey because he prides himself on his knowledge of anatomy, cerebral in particular. [..]
In the salon of the Duchess of Abrantès as in that of Dumas, Larrey found by chance René de Chateaubriand, who attends only that of the resplendent Juliette Récamier in order to share their common passion. Gradually withdrawn from politics, the illustrious writer chairs the commission responsible for erecting a monument in memory of Junot. Composed of Maret, the former Secretary of State of Napoleon, the banker Laffitte, both ephemeral presidents of the Council of Louis-Philippe, David, Alexandre Dumas, it would be usefully completed by the presence of Larrey, says Chateaubriand. Although placed at political antipodes, both will find enough elevation of thought to forget the past, mutually respect each other’s work and collaborate.
{Chateaubriand, by Girodet}
The only thing Larrey can neither forget nor forgive is betrayal.
During a reception given by the Comte de Rambuteau, Prefect of the Seine, Larrey sees a young officer whom he had known well in the wars of the Empire.
Endowed with a beautiful bass voice, he finishes his recital, leans nonchalantly on the piano before saluting a delighted audience. No one knows that with four other staff officers, he followed de Bourmont to pass to the enemy the day before Waterloo, white cockade on his hat, but in the early morning so as not to be seen.
Having distinguished Larrey among the guests, he crosses the room, walks towards him, a bewitching smile on his lips, hand widely extended:
“What! You don’t recognize me, Mr. Larrey? I am …”
Larrey, scowling, frowning, has taken two steps back, arms crossed, and interrupts him in an icy tone:
“The officer I knew by that name died at Waterloo!”
Then he ostensibly turns his back and leaves.
Jean Marchioni - Place à monsieur Larrey, chirurgien de la garde impériale
