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Nom
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Bourgeois Marin or 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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3 September 1634
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Lieu de naissance
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Lisieux
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Lieu de mort
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LIsieux or Paris
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Couverture temporelle
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Late 16th/early 17th century
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Couverture spatiale
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Lisieux
Galeries d Louvre, Paris (from 1608).
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Biographie
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A painter and sculptor, Marin Bourgeois (or Bourgeoys or Le Bourgeois) was born into a multidisciplinary artisan family of locksmiths, crossbow-makers and clock-makers. His talent in painting was early displayed and caught the attention of François de Bourbon, duc 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 that he retained for the rest of his life. Among his protectors was Martin Ruzé, seigneur de Bealieu (1527-1613), secretary of state and Grand master of the Mines of France, who would serve six sovereigns. Bourgeois presented a number of his works to Ruzé, including probably a surviving ivory. diptych dial carrying Ruzé's ams and dated 1598. The following year he presented him with a sun-dial 'table' which he described in a surviving manuscript. Between 1600 and 1604 Bourgeois installed a complex hydraulic system in the château of Outrelaise at Gouvix which incorporated automaton figures of birds - a swan that drank, an owl that concealed itself, and the sounds of cuckoos and nightingales. 1 In 1608 he was among the first group of artists to receive a lodging in the Louvre (although he seems to have continued to live in Lisieux), being described in Henry IV's letters patent as 'Painter and valet de chambre to the King, artificer in movable globes, sculptor and other contrivances'. 2. 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 in LIsieux.
Bourgeois was a multi-talented craftsman similar in profile to Renaissance 'Artist-engineers' or to the 'mechanicians' who would characterize the 18th century. David Rivault, sieur de Fleurance described him as 'living in Lisieux', where he visited him, ' a man of the rarest judgement in all kinds of inventions, of the most cunning 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. 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 weaker or stronger 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, harmonizing with those who play the other parts, without that they know anything of his device, nor he understand any note of their science. 3 In addition to all this Bourgeois invented a wind-gun that was demonstrated to Henry IV and Ruzé, 4, and improved existing flint-lock firearms by the introduction of the 'frizzen' which combined the priming-pan cover and the strike- plate into one piece of steel. 5 Also for Henry IV, Bourgeois created 'a globe into which the movements of the Sun, Moon and stars are transferred with the same paces, measures and periods as they are seen to have in the sky'. 6 A precursor of the 'sphères mobiles' that would characterize 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 it 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 him in 1633 and an engraving published shortly after his death. 7 In 1641 PIquuot held the 6th workshop in the Galeries du Liuvre which from 1636 he shared with the arquebusier François Duclos (also probably a pupil of Bourgeois). 8
Known as a painter of considerable range - arms, armor and battle scenes, miniature portraits, fruit, flowers, allegories and religious scenes - only two examples of Bourgeois' painted work are known to have survived; a fragment from an allegory representing a casque female figure, and an equestrian portrait of Henry IV. 9
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Notes biographiques
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1 For the diptych dial see Mercier & Gagnaire, for the hydraulic system, Masere n. 21.
2 Guenais & Joly, ii 168. THis was Workshop B at the St Nicaise end of the GGrand Galerie. Haurd 23.
3 avid Rivault, sieur de Fleurance, Les Clemens de l'artillerie. concernant tant la théorie que la pratique du canon augmenté en cette nouvelle édition et enrichis de l'invention, description et demonstration d'une nouvelle artillerie qui ne se charge que d'air. ou d'eau pure et a néanmoins une incroyable force, etc, Paris 1608, Bk vi, 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 qui se trouve en Europe… Et, ce qui est de merveilleux en son industrie, sans avoir appui d'aucun Maistre, il est excellent peintre, rare statuaire, musicien et astronome, manie plus délicatement le fer e le cuivre qu'artisan qui sache. le Roi a de sa main une table on acier poli où Sa Majesté est représenté au naturel sans gravure, moulure ni peinture, seulement par le feu, que ce subtil ingenieur y a donné pa endroits plus ou moins, selon que la figure y a désiré de clair, du brun ou de l'obscur…. Il s'est inventé à lui-même une musique, par laquelle il met en tablature, à lui seul connue, tous airs et chan sons, et les joie après sur le viol, accordant avec ceux qui sonne les autres parties, sans qu'ils sachent rien de son artifice, ni lui entende aucune note de leur science.
4 For this see Charton.
5 A flint-lock fire-arm by Bourgeois is preserved in the Musée de l'Armée, Inv. M435.
6 Ibid. 'Un globe dans lequel sont apportés le mouvement du Soleil, de la Lune et des étoiles fixes à messes pas, mesures et périodes qu'elles se voient aller au ciel'.
7 Huard, passim.
8 Huard (Logements), 23
9 Musée de l'Art et d'Histoire, Lisieux and Musée de l'Armée, Paris.
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Bibliographie
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'La pratique & l'usage' [of a gnomonic table], BnF ms fr 19945.
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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Lisieux
Paris
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Identifiant
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ark:/18469/gt5x