traceability survey, aND STUDY OF UNPUBLISHED GRAPHIC ART FUND FROM FORMER ESTATES GUILLAUME GUILLON LETHIÈRE (1760-1832), Louis-jérôme gohier (1746-1830), MÉLANIE D'HERVILLY HAHNEMANN (1800-1878)

[EXPERTISE - appraisal & ADVISORY]

©AGALMATA
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"Choses rares ou choses belles ici savamment assemblées
instruisent l’œil à regarder comme jamais encore vues toutes choses qui sont au monde"

[Rare things or beautiful things here skilfully assembled
instruct the eye to look at all things in the world as never seen before ]

Paul Valéry

AGALMATA is studying and apparaising an unpublished graphic art collection (drawings and engravings) that belonged to Marie Mélanie d'Hervilly Gohier (Bruxelles 1800 - Paris 1878), better known under her married name, Madame Samuel Hahnemann. Born in Brussels of French parents, Marie Mélanie d'Hervilly was successively a genre and portrait painter, lithographer, drawing teacher and the first female homeopathic doctor. Much of his artistic career was spent in Paris. She exhibited at the Paris Salon (1822, 1824, Medal), at the Douai Salon (1825), and Lille Salon (1825, 1826), where she presented several lithographs. Later, she assisted her husband, Samuel Hahnemann, in the practice of homeopathic medicine, while continuing to paint and write poetry.

The traceability survey certifies the identity of the art fund's first owner, "Mlle D'HERVILLY" and establishes an assured chain of ancient provenances.
Marie Mélanie d'Hervilly Gohier was not only the wife of the famous doctor Samuel Hahnemann (1755 - 1843), best known for creating homeopathy, she was also the testamentary heiress of  :

1/  her adoptive father (posthumously), the French politician Louis-Jérôme Gohier (1746 - 1830), Consul-General at Amsterdam, President of the French Directory (1799), Minister of Justice, and close friend of Joséphine de Beauharnais. Marie Mélanie d'Hervilly inherited all of his art collection.

2/ her tutor and professor, the French painter Guillaume Guillon Lethière (1760 - 1832), Prix de Rome, Director of the French Academy in Rome, elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Lethière helped Lucien Bonaparte to build an art collection. Marie Mélanie d'Hervilly Gohier inherited his studio fund and all his art collection (partially dispersed).

Several works entrusted to us are of great interest to art historians, including drawings by italian Renaissance masters, and graphic productions of the Dutch, German, Swiss and French schools of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Works from after the sixteenth century are attributed to other famous artists, such as Benoit Audran, Greuze, Dominique Vivant Denon, Guillon Lethière ...

The rare value of this artistic collection lies in the combination of the three prestigious provenances (Gohier, Guillon Lethière and d'Hervilly Hahnemann). She also lies to their respective social circles (Lucien Bonaparte, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Alexandre Dumas father and son, Samuel Hahnemann, Lord Elgin, Ingres, Madelaine Lemaire, Mélanie Villenave Waldor, l'Abbé de Lamennais ...)

Dr Laure Chevalier (PhD) - 2024
AGALMATA EXPERTISE
"Monsieur Lethière was at once a fine talent, a good heart and a charming wit. He had with him, as the soul of the house, a young blonde woman, tall, slim, almost always dressed in black, who was called Mademoiselle d'Hervilly, and who, under this name, did painting and literature, who has since been called Madame Hahnemann, and who, under this name, did medicine. It was a cold spirit, a dry heart, but a strong will.
Today, I see Madame Hahnemann, a widow, very wealthy.
She was a very superior person, and did the honors of the house to Mr. Lethière's old friends, some of whom had been friends of my father. The old friends were: M. Gohier, the former president of the Directoire, Andrieux, Desgenettes, a painter named Renaud, and a few others.
[...] Of all these men, the most remarkable to me was Gohier."

[Alexandre Dumas, Mes Mémoires (CXIII)]
©AGALMATA