University of Virginia Library

23. The Gobelins.

The "Manufactures Impériales de tapisseries des Gobelins et de
tapis de la Savonnerie", Rue Mouffetard 254, is accessible to
strangers on Wednesdays and Saturdays, from 2 to 4 o'clock in
summer and from 1 to 3 in winter: admission is obtained
gratuitously on presenting a passport or visiting-card, or by tickets
procured from the administrator (M. l'administrateur de la manufacture
impériale des Gobelins).

The Gobelins is situated about 2 M. from the Louvre and
may be conveniently visited on the same day as the Pantheon,
1 M. distant, or the Jardin des Plantes, ½ M. distant.

At the S.E. extremity of Paris, on the l. bank of the Seine,
the brook la Bièvre skirts the city and falls into the Seine above
the Pont d'Austerlitz. During several centuries its water has
been considered peculiarly adapted for dyeing purposes. In 1450
Jean Gobelin erected a dyeing establishment on its banks, which
was combined by his successors with a manufactory of tapestry.

These manufacturers had acquired such a high reputation
about the middle of the 17th cent., that Colbert, the minister of
Louis XIV., a warm promoter of industrial enterprise, caused
the establishment to be purchased and carried on at the expense
of government.

After the lapse of years, however, the manufactory was found
to yield profits totally inadequate to the expense of its maintenance.

It was therefore converted into and still continues to be
an establishment which supplies the family of the reigning monarch
with the choicest fabrics which art can produce. Its manufactures
are also presented as gifts to foreign courts, personages
of high rank, ambassadors etc.

The same remarks apply to the Savonnerie, a carpet manufactory
founded in 1604 by Marie de Médicis, which derived its
appellation from having been originally established in a soap
manufactory, but was in 1826 transferred to the same building
as the Gobelins.

About 150 workmen are employed in these establishments,
each of whom receives 1000—3000 fr. per annum. These are
of course all intelligent men of a superior class, and style themselves
"artistes-ouvriers".

The work requires the utmost patience and the most practised
eye. An area of 6 sq. inches is the average daily task of each
workman. The visitor will, therefore, hardly be surprised to learn
that many years are sometimes requisite for the execution of
the larger designs, which when complete are worth 2000—6000 L.

There is of course here little scope for originality, the object
of the work being simply the accurate imitation of paintings and
other designs. The perfection, however, to which the art has
attained is truly astonishing, and its results may be not inaptly
compared to literary works translated from some foreign language
by a masterly hand.

The exhibition-rooms are so limited in size that the designs
exposed to view are frequently removed to make way for the
newer works. In January, 1867, the following designs, about
100 in number, were exhibited. (The name in Italics are those
of the artists from whose pictures the designs have been copied.)

1. The School of Athens, Raphael; 2. and 3. Parnassus, in
fragments, Raphael; 4. Triumph of Bacchus, Raphael and Noöl
Coypel; 5.—8. Arabesques; 9. The family of Darius at Alexander's
feet, Lebrun; 10. Entrance into Babylon of Alexander the Great;
11, 12. Curtains; 13.—16. Animals; 17. Saturn, Boulongne;
18. Juno, Boulongne; 19. Portrait of the painter Boucher;
20. Neptune, Boulongne; 21. Coats of arms; 22. The Seine;
23. Song; 24. Apollo; 25. Madonna, Maratte; 26. Horse torn to
pieces by wolves, Snyders; 27. Venus in the work-shop of
Vulcan; 28. Silenus; 29. Peace; 30. Rinaldo and Armide; 31.
Clytia metamorphosed by Apollo into a flower; 32. Rape of
Proserpine, Vien; 33. Triumph of Amphitrite; 34. Hector's farewell,
Vien; 35. Contest of Mars and Diomede, Le Doyen; 36.
Meleager surrounded by his family entreating him to take up arms
against the approaching enemy, Menageot; 37. Napoleon in the
plague-hospital at Jaffa, Gros; 38. Bonaparte pardoning the rebels
at Cairo, Guérin; 39. Napoleon restoring his arms to the commandant

of Alexandria, Mulard; 40. Napoleon issuing commands
on the morning of the battle of Austerlitz, Horace Vernet; 41.
The surrender of Vienna, Girodet-Trioson; 42. French soldiers
finding their flags in the arsenal in Innspruck, Meynier; 43.
Napoleon and the Princess Hatzfeld, Boisfremont; 44. Napoleon
receiving the Persian ambassador, Mulard; 45. Portrait of the
empress Josephine, Lethière; 46. Napoleon and Alexander on the
Niemen, Gautherot; 47. Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia at
Tilsit, Berton; 48. Napoleon presenting a Russian soldier with
the cross of the legion of honour, Debret; 49. The imperial arms;
50. The Italian arms; 57. Boreas carrying off Orithia, from the
marble group in the Jardin des Tuileries; 52. Louis XVIII., Gérard;
53. The dauphin, Lawrence: 54. Zeuxis seeking among the fairest
of the women of Greece for a model for his Juno Lucina, Vincent;
55. Louis XVI.; 56. The same; 57. Chelonis following Cleombrotus
into exile, Lemonnier; 58. Marie Antoinette and her children,
Madame Lebrun; 59. Sylvia rescued from a monster by Amyntas,
Boucher; 60. Filial love, Guérin; 61. Phædra and Hippolytus,
Guérin; 62. Pyrrhus protecting Andromache, Guérin; 63. Peter
the Great on the lake of Ladoga, Steuben; 64. Conspiracy of the
Strelitzes, Steuben; 65. Joan of Arc, Blondel; 66. Ste. Clotilde,
Guérin; 67. Joseph and his brethren, Coypel; 68. Paul preaching
at Athens; 69. Paul and Barnabas refuse to receive sacrifice,
Raphael; 70. The wolf and the lamb; 71. The two dogs; 72. Spring,
Steinheil; 73. Autumn, the same; 74. Incremation of the body
of Phocion, Meynier; 75. Foundation of the museum at Versailles,
Alaux and Couder; 76. The Louvre and Tuileries; 77. Venus,
Juno and Ceres, from pictures in the Villa Farnese by Raphael;
78. Psyche's return from the infernal regions, Raphael; 79. Jupiter
and Cupid, Raphael; 80. Assembly of the gods; 81. Ch. Lebrun,
Couder; 82. Portrait of Charles Lebrun the painter, Largillière;
83. Colbert, Lefebvre; 84. Christ in the sepulchre, Champaigne;
85. Louis XIV., Rigaud; 86. The Transfiguration, Raphael;
87. Assumption of the Virgin, Titian; 88. 89. Napoleon III.
and the Empress Eugénie; 90—94. Flowers and animals; 95. Madonna,
Raphael; 96. Jupiter under the form of Diana at the feet
of the nymph Calisto, Boucher; 97. Venus, Boucher. Among the
copies in process of execution are: 98. Madonna, Raphael, begun
in 1859; 100. The Gosspi, Boucher, begun in 1860; 108. Muses,
Lesueur.

The buildings in which the manufactory is established, as
well as their situation, are far from attractive. The long Rue
Mouffetard is inhabited by the poorest classes only and is the
head-quarters of rag-collectors (chiffonniers).

In the same street is situated the church of St. Médard, containing
the "wonder-working" shrine of a certain Abbé Paris, to

which in 1732 Louis XV. forbade pilgrimages to be made. This
gave rise to the witticism: