I’m sorry I’m not active here, I’ve been struggling with mental health issues since less than a month now, and getting better is being very, very complicated..
I haven’t drawn since January 1st, but even if it takes weeks, I’ll come back, productive, and without a depression
Tiny Christmas gift for @aedesluminis , as she deserves soft and lovely things only 💌
Bon réveillon à toutes les personnes qui me suivent ici, thank you very much for your kindness and your support ! I never thought to enjoy making art again, and didn’t except all those wonderful things that happened this year, thanks to being on Tumblr
I have drawing projects planned for 2025, sadly my hours at work prevented me from drawing a lot recently, as I’m also preparing for important tests for my career too..
I recently went to the temporary exhibition at Musée Carnavalet in Paris about the height of the French Revolution. It inspired me to draw these two again hehe
I decided it was about time to compile a convenient list with all the information and resources I could find about Claude-Antoine Prieur, also known as Prieur de la Côte-d'Or.
It's very much a work in progress: some posts, those without a link, are yet to be written. The list will be updated and edited with time.
♢ Biographies
Full books
Paul Gaffarel - Prieur de la Côte-d'Or, Librairie Noury, Dijon (1900).
Georges Bouchard - Prieur de la Côte-d'Or, un organisateur de la victoire, Librairie Historique R. Claveruil, Paris (1946).
(Not only I plan to transcribe both of them in a lighter, more readable format, but also to write a post comparing the two, though this should wait until I finish reading them fully. For now, from what I could see, none of the two could be considered a definitive Prieur biography: Paul Gaffarel didn't have access to Prieur's personal papers, resulting in a very incomplete work and inaccuracies; as far as Bouchard is concerned, he was no historian but a chemist and it shows both in his very superficial interpretation of the historical period in which Prieur lived and in the uncritical way in which he analyses primary accounts and sources about the latter.
For anyone interested in Prieur's life, I would recommend you to start from the 1946 one: despite the many criticism I personally have towards it, it's more complete, since Bouchard was granted access to Claude-Antoine's papers.)
Summaries
Timeline for Prieur's life
"Profile card" by @saintjustitude.
Translation of Gainot's entry on Prieur mentioned in Dictionnaire des membres du Comité de Salut Public
♢ Primary Sources
Correspondence and personal writings
Prieur's letter to Louis XVI on the importance of having a unified metric system in France
Prieur's letter to Guyton dated 10 Thermidor an II (28 July 1794)
Prieur's speech of 3 Germinal an III
Prieur's last written letter (to Simonne Frilley)
C.A. Prieur - Révelations sur le Comité de Salut Public (I plan to translate them all into English eventually)
Modern transcription of Prieur's first work on the metric system: Mémoire sur la nécessité et les moyens de rendre uniformes, dans le royaume, toutes les mesures d’étendue et de pesanteur
PNG Vector of Prieur's signature (by @senechalum)
Some excerpts from Prieur's first work on the metric system: 1. On the benefit of using the decimal scale 2. Conclusion of the memoir (summary of Prieur’s proposal)
Prieur's speech on the occasion of his admission to Dijon's Academy of Science
CSP decrees written and/or signed by him
Copy of the Letter of the Committee of Public Safety to the Directory of the District of Valence dated 19 Pluviôse [Year II]
♢ Secondary Sources
Camille Richard - Le Comité de Salut Public et les fabrications de guerre sous la Terreur, Rieder Ed., Paris, (1922) (A very interesting book on the warfare during the Terror (93-94), explaining Prieur, Carnot and Lindet's duties and contributions.)
Bertrand Barère on Prieur
Paul Arbelet on Prieur
Paul Arbelet - La jeunesse de Prieur de la Côte-d'Or, Revue du dix-huitième siècle (1916)
Bulletin de la Sabix - n°8 (décembre 1991) (it's a small journal written in French with some articles about the founding of the Polytechnic School and Prieur's role in it)
♢ Posts
Prieur's personality: an introduction by @saintjustitude
Various portraits
Quotes (by him and on him)
Prieur's baptism certificate
Prieur's family crest
On Prieur's family
On Prieur's daughter (some additions by @nesiacha)
On Prieur's disability
Charles Bossut on Prieur's school perfomance at the École de Mézières
On Carnot and Prieur’s friendship (1, 2, 3, 4)
Prieur was never named Compte de l'Empire by Napoléon
On the mutual dislike between Prieur and Bonaparte
Historical inaccuracies in Arte's documentary Un mètre pour mesurer le monde
Prieur's contributions to the establishment of a new unified metric system
How Prieur and Carnot were elected members of the Committee of Public safety
Prieur's duties and contributions as member of the CSP
Prieur's contributions in the foundation and political defense of the École Polytechnique
Prieur's attendance at the CSP
Prieur's depiction in media
The bizarre legend about Prieur knowing that Louis-Charles Capet was freed from the Temple and substituted with another child
I’m not very active recently, because I’ve been pretty unsatisfied with my work recently … And I’m very sorry for those people waiting in my asks, I want to answer to everyone with at least a drawing, so it takes time .. !
Currently on vacations at my grandparents’s house right now, there’s nothing to draw traditionally sooo.. I picked up a very very old colored pencil, and an envelope
idk what I did, I wanted to post sketches I did today and… not only I don’t know where the post landed.. but I can’t post things anymore with the app 😳
Gift for the wonderfully caring @aedesluminis , who helped me finding inspiration, because of Artblock 🥺
I wanted to also use this occasion to practice my (poor) digital painting skills ! It's still not what I'd like, but maybe I'm getting closer .. !
The background's reference comes from this painting, as I wanted something that had to do with the lighting ; I'm pretty proud of how it looks
I hope to be more active this month, but either I work, I sleep, or I'm on the back of a horse (literally), I don't have a lot of free time..
I can't say too much in public what I do in life, but I figured I'm not not allowed to draw what I do :D
As being an artist isn't my job at all, and I never studied to become one (you can tell)
Have a chibi of me in one of my work uniforms, out of all outfits, it's definitely my favorite one .. !
I'm very proud of what I do in life :) and it's somehow a bit related to napoléon
I'm sorry I'm not very active recently, but I decided to focus on my career a bit more, and I also lost a bit of confidence in my work.. But I'll post soon, I have more requests to answer ;;.. !
Here is the painted sketch of lefebvre. Ill keep adding my instagram watermark from now on as ive seen some of my art cropped and reposted on pinterest again without credit 😅
Did Prieur Claude Antoine really have a daughter with Madame Vêtu in 1788 (or is it just a strong possibility)?
Whether Prieur had a daughter with Catherine-Elisabeth Vétu - born Joly - is something we can never know for sure, unless we go back in time and ask them. However, according to both Paul Arbelet and Georges Bouchard, who had the chance of having access to Prieur's complete collection of personal papers, there's strong evidence that the latter might have truly been the biological father of Madame Vétu's last child.
Before delving into the matter, allow me a little digression on how Prieur and Catherine came to know each other.
The two met in 1785, when he was 22 and she was 29; yes, she was seven years older than him! The former moved to Dijon both for military duty and to assist Louis-Bernard Guyton in his scientific works. The young officer needed a place to stay and one of the rooms of the Vétu family house revealed itself to be the most suitable for him. Bouchard guesses that the two might have become close very soon, allowing Prieur to eat and sleep there for free since his low salary at the time wouldn't have allowed him to always pay the rent. (1)
Not a far-fetched speculation, considering that Catherine’s lively character and active participation in the management of her husband's grocery store; at that time managing a business implied a minimum of education and both a strong dedication and commitment to work; qualities that Prieur appreciated and admired in a person. On the other hand, Catherine, despite the age gap, must have been impressed by Prieur's reserved, hardworking character and polite manners, something that her husband seemed to be lacking. (2)
In 1785 Catherine already had two children, Pierre, 9 years old and Bernard, 7 years old; three years later, her last one, Claudine was born. Prieur was chosen as godfather, or offered to be.
Here's the child's baptism certificate I managed to find in the Cote-d'Or archives:
[Source: Archives de la Côte-d'Or, Registres paroissiaux et état civil, XVIe siècle-1938 (sous-série 2 E). Collection communale 1579-1792, Toutes paroisses, FRAD021EC 239/095, Vues 0252-0317 : Paroisse Saint-Jean, Baptêmes et Mariages, janvier 1788-décembre 1788, vue 279]
Claudine-Denise, fille du Sr Joseph Vétu, marchand épicier et demoiselle Catherine Joly son épouse, est venue au monde et a été baptisée ce jourd'hui 2 mai 1788, son parrain, M. Claude-Antoine Prieur Duvernoy, écuyer, officier au corps royal du génie, représenté par le Sr Jean-François Boiteux, épicier, et sa marraine, dame Claudine-Denise Couturier, veuve du sieur Bernard Joly, son aïeule maternelle. (3)
EN: Claudine-Denise, daughter of Joseph Vétu, grocery merchant and of Catherine Joly, his spouse, was born and baptized on this day 2 May 1788, her godfather being M. Claude-Antoine Prieur Duvernoy, esquire, officier in the Corps Royal du Génie, represented by Sr. Jean-François Boiteux, grocer, and her godmother dame Claudine-Denise Couturier, widow of Monsieur Bernard Joly, her maternal grandmother.
As mentioned before, the supposition that Claude-Antoine might have been more than a simple godfather stems from some facts that for Arbelet and Bouchard are pretty emblematic: In Prieur's personal notes, there's a date written down by him and another one right next to it, which not only corresponds to Claudine's birthday, but it's curiously nine months distant from the first date. I’m not an expert on 18th century customs, but it’s not unlikely that men wrote down the date in which they had an intercourse with a woman to know if they were the father of the child that would have later been born. When Claudine was 17, Prieur arranged a marriage between her and a friend of his, Drappier, to whom he later associated the business the former was running at the time; at the time these engagements for a girl were her father’s or her guardian’s duty. When Prieur wrote his testament, he left quite a sum of francs to Claudine's son as inheritance and lastly, there's also a letter from an old garrison fellow of Prieur, in which there's written "I wish good morning to you and your women". (4)
I’d also wish to add that from the bits of their correspondence shared by Bouchard and the overall treatment Prieur reserved for her throughout her life, the two seemed to be pretty close, linked by an intimacy that goes beyond the one between a woman and an old family friend. He was always there for her, sent her various gifts and helped her financially. This further confirms the hypothesis that Claudine was his real daughter.
Why did he never adopt her, not even after Joseph Vétu’s death? It’s a question that those who wrote about Prieur never asked themselves, but that I personally wonder. The only thing I can think of right now, given my limited knowledge, is that he didn’t want to give her his surname and cause her to be persecuted. Despite never being the target of slander, he had been part of the revolutionary government responsible for the Terror and not a normal one, but a member of the “bloodthirsty Committee of Public Safety of Year II”: so was the view of the CSP during the Napoleonic Era and Restoration.
It’s Prieur himself that in a letter dated 1814 to General Marescot reveals he resigned from public life at the beginning of the century because he foresaw the persecution the members of the government prior to the Consulate would have endured. (5) His concern towards her daughter was also a legitimate one: for instance, Sadi Carnot couldn’t advance in the army, despite deserving it, and was denied some positions, because of the surname he bore.
References
G. Bouchard, Prieur de la Côte-d’Or, 1946, p. 54-58.
P. Arbelet, La jeunesse de Prieur de la Côte-d’Or, Revue du dix-huitième siècle, 1916, p. 38-51
Notes
On page 56 of Prieur’s biography, Bouchard affirms with confidence that the date of Thursday 1 December 1785 which Prieur wrote in his “Tableau du temps... depuis 1782 jusqu'en 1792.” - a sort of list of the main events of his life - corresponds to the latter’s unofficial engagement with Catherine. Considering that Prieur arrived in Dijon in August, it means it took them four months to fall in love with each other. Though, except for a vague remark on “a certain number of coincidences that would be too long to report”, Bouchard doesn’t explain in specific how he got to that conclusion.
From some letters and papers that Prieur kept, Joseph Vétu appeared as a “lousy and insignificant man” (G. Bouchard, p. 56).
Transcription by Bouchard (p. 58 of his biography)
Letter from Andréossy to Prieur (G. Bouchard, p. 361).
Letter to Marescot of 18 April 1814 (G. Bouchard, p.380-381).
These are illustrations I created for the fanfiction Falling with You by singonthemoon on AO3. If you like my art and interested in the story please check out her amazing story on AO3, and give her lots of kudos, because she felt so upset that very few people read and like her stories even though they are so awesome! Thank you so much for your love and support❤️
ARNONAPO IS THE BEST!
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