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Nom
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Bourgeois Marin ou Martin
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Date de naissance
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c. 1560
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Date de mort
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1634
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Lieu de naissance
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Lisieux
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Lieu de mort
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Paris or Lisieux
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Couverture temporelle
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Late 16th /early 17th century
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Biographie
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A painter and sculptor, Marin Bourgeois (or Bourgeoys, or Le Bourgeoys) was born into a multi-disciplinary artisan family of lock-makers, crossbow-makers and clock-makers. His talent in painting however was early displayed and caught the attention of François de Bourbon, comte de Montpensier, governor of Normandy. In 1591 he was appointed his regular painter before, in 1594, receiving the charge of Valet-de-Chambre and painter to the king, an appointment which he retained for the rest of his life. In 1608 he was among the first group of artists to receivd a lodging in the Louvre (although he seems to have continued living in LIsieux), being described in Henry IV's letters patent as 'Painter and Valet de Chambre to the King, artificer in moveable globes, sculptor and other contrivances'.1 By his wife, Florence Lefebvre, he had one daughter Antoinette (d. 1640). Although he probably died in Paris, he was buried in the church of St Germain at Lisieux.
Bourgeois was a multi-talented craftsman similar in profile to Renaissance 'artist-engineers or to the 'mechanicians' of the 18th century. David Rivault, sieur de Fleurance, described him as 'living in Lisieux in Normandy', where he visited him, 'a man of the rarest judgement in all kinds of inventions, of the most cunnning imagination, and the most subtle hand for manipulating the tool of whatever art, to be found in Europe;…And what is wonderful in his work, without having the help of any master, he is an excellent painter, a rare sculptor, musician and astronomer, manipulates iron and brass more delicately than any artist knows how to. From his hand, the king has a polished steel plate where His Majesty is represented to the life without engraving, casting or paint, only by fire which this subtle craftsman placed there stronger or weaker in different parts, according as the figure there needed to be light, brown or obscure.… He has himself invented a music by which he can transcribe all songs and airs in a way known only to himself, and afterwards play on the viol harmonising with those who play the other parts, without that they know anything of his device, nor he understand any note of their science'.2 In addition to all this Bourgeois invented a wind-gun that was demonstrated to Henry IV and the secretary for state, Ruzé, sieur de Beaulieu, Grand Master of the Mines of France.3 Also for Henry IV, Bourgeois created 'a globe into which the movements of the Sun, the Moon and the fixed stars are transferred with the same pâces, measures and periods as they have in the sky'. 4 A precursor of the 'sphères mobiles' that would characterise the 18th century, this machine was placed in the 'Gallery' of the Louvre where Bourgeois had to repair it in 1611. After his death responsibility for this 'globe or sphere' passed to the painter Thomas Piquot 'because of the experience he has acquired in works of this kind'. Piquot, who was probably a pupil of Bourgeois, was responsible for a portrait medallion of Bourgeois in 1633 and an engraving of him published shortly after his death.5
Known as a painter of considerable range - arms, armour and battle-scenes, miniature portraits, fruit and flowers, allegories and religious scenes - only two examples of Bourgeois' painted work apparently have survived; a fragment from an allegory depicting a casqued female figure, and an equestrian portrait of Henry IV.6
5 Huard.
6 Musée de l'Art et d'Histoire, Lisieux and Musée de l'Armée, Paris.
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Notes biographiques
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1 Guenais & Joly, ii 168.
2 David Rivault, sieur de Fleurance, Les Elemens de l'artillerie, concernans tant la théorie que la pratique du canon, augmenté en cette nouvelle edition et enrichis de l'inv ention, description et demonstration d'une nouvelle artillerie qui ne se charge que d'air ou d'eau pure et a neanmoins une incroyable force, etc, Paris 1608, Bk IV, pp. 4 -5 of this section. 'demeurant à Lisieux en Normandie, homme du plus rare jugement en toutes sortes d'inventions, de la plus artificieuse imagination et de la plus subtile main à manier un outil de quelque art que ce soit se trouve en Europe,…Et, ce qui est de merveilleux en son industrie, sans avoir appui d'aucun maistret, il est excellent peintre, rare statuaire, musicien et astronome, manie plus delicatement le fer et le cuivre qu'artisan qui sache. Le Roi a de sa main une table en acier poli où sSa Majesté est representée au naturel sans gravure, moulure ni peinture, seulement par le feu,que ce subtil ingenieur y a donné par endroits plus ou moins, selon que la figure y a désiré du clair, du brun ou de l'obscur. …Il s'est inventé à lui-même une musique, par laquelle il met en tablatfure, à lui seul connnue, tous airs et chansons, et les joue après sur lea viole, accordant avec ceux qui sonne les autres parties, sans qu'ils sachent rien de son artifice, ni lui qu'il entende aucune note de leiur science'.
3 For this see Charton..
4 Ibid., 'Un globe dans lequel sont rapportés le mouvement du Soleil, de la Lune et des étoilles fixes à mesmes pas, mesures et périodes qu'elles se voyent aller au ciel'.
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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Galeries du Louvre Paris
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Identifiant
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3337
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ark:/18469/1thq4