The Grand Equerry, Armand de Caulaincourt, Duc de Vicenza
THE GRAND EQUERRY
ARMAND DE CAULAINCOURT, DUC OF VICENZA
"The Grand Equerry is attributed the duties of the Stables and its various services, the Pages, the Couriers, H.M.'s weapons of war and the oversight and management of the stud farms at Saint-Cloud. He organizes everything to do with travelling, and decides on the places each person should occupy."
This hitherto little known portrait of Armand de Caulaincourt as Grand Equerry of the Imperial Household, executed by Ferréol Bonnemaison, was one of the first portraits of Grand Officers to be commissioned for a gallery. The artist exhibited it at the Salon of 1806, and then took it back for completion in January 1807. In August, the canvas was installed in the Tuileries, in the Gallery of Diana, before being sent to Compiegne in May 1808. Taken down at the Restoration, it was stored in the Louvre before being restored to Caulaincourt, who was by then living far from the court of France.
When Caulaincourt, a nobleman of Picardy, was appointed Grand Equerry in July 1804 at the age of thirty, he was the youngest of the Grand Officers of the Imperial Household. A handsome man and an excellent rider--the minimum requirement for this position--he already had a long military career behind him, which started under the Ancien Regime and continued during the Revolution and the Consulate. He had recently won Napoleon's confidence by successfully carrying out the abducation of the duc d'Enghien (March 1, 1804), a sad episode in the march to Empire. In command of the Stables, an enormous department of the Household, he was a notably rigorous administrator. His management of the horses, the carriages, the equipages and the pages was suspended in December 1807, when he was appointed ambassador to the court of Russia. Although he retained his title and his emoluments, his responsibilities now fell to his subordinates. He was made duc de Vicenza on June 7, 1808. He returned to Paris in May 1811 then left again for Russia the following year, this time in the ranks of the Grand Armée to follow Napoleon and conquer the country. This was a crushing defeat for the French. He fought in the German campaign in 1813, and acted briefly as Grand Marshal of the Palace between the death of Duroc and the appointment of Bertrand. He was for a while minister of foreign affairs (November 20, 1813--April 3, 1814), a position he regained during the Hundred Days.
Like his colleagues, Caulaincourt is depicted here in the civil uniform of a Grand Officer of the Household, in the shade of blue reserved for the Grand Equerry and his team, somewhat darker than the regulatory "sky blue". The jacket falls straight in the Spanish style, a l'espagnole, unlike those of Grand Marshal of the Palace Duroc or of Grand Master of the Hunt Berthier, cut a la francais. Caulaincourt is wearing the insignia of the Legion of Honour and the Order of Saint Hubert of Bavaria.
The Grand Equerry is shown in an interior featuring a heavy red wall hanging. The presence of an elegant X-shaped stool of gilded wood, on which lies the subject's hat, identifies the space as one of the salons in the State apartments of an imperial residence. The folding stool, a typical piece of court furniture, does not correspond to any known model. The balls projecting from the seat's frame is a stylistic detail that suggests a dating of the years of the Consulate, comparing it to seating from about 1800, like the series of stools in the Council Chamber at Malmaison. The relatively early date if the portrait (1806-7) confirms this notion. This sort of furniture, created in a context influenced by antique styles but still republican, would readily seem functional and relevant in the furnishing of palaces after the proclamation of the Empire and the formulation of the etiquette.
This portrait of Caulaincourt by Bonnemaison was copied about 1808 by Isabey when he was commissioned by the Sévres manufactory to execute a portrait bust of the Grand Equerry for the top of the Austerlitz table. A drawing of the bust is found in a private collection.
Napoleon, The Imperial Household, Sylvain Cordier, Montreal Museum of the Arts, page 54
Ferréol Bonnemaison Portrait:
Austerlitz Table, Caulaincourt portrait
