{{Short description|French artist, writer, diplomat, author and archaeologist (1747–1825)}} {{more citations needed|date=January 2016}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Vivant Denon | image = Vivant Denon par Robert Lefèvre (1809).jpg | caption = Vivant Denon by [[Robert Lefèvre]] (1809) | birth_date = {{birth date|1747|1|4|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Chalon-sur-Saône]], [[Burgundy]], Kingdom of France | death_date = {{death date and age|1825|4|27|1747|1|4|df=y}} | death_place = Paris, Kingdom of France | residence = | citizenship = | ethnicity = | field = [[Engraving]], [[Archaeology]] | work_institutions = | alma_mater = | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | prizes = | religion = | footnotes = | signature = }}
'''Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon''' ({{IPA|fr|dɔminik vivɑ̃ baʁɔ̃ dənɔ̃}}; 4 January 1747 – 27 April 1825) was a French artist, writer, [[diplomat]], author, and [[archaeologist]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|editor-last=Bard|editor-first=Kathryn A.|editor-link=Kathryn A. Bard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AWSGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA254|title=Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-66525-9|page=254|language=en}}</ref> Denon was a diplomat for France under [[Louis XV]] and [[Louis XVI]].<ref name=":0" /> He was appointed as the first director of the [[Louvre]] museum by [[Napoleon]] after the [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|Egyptian campaign]] of 1798–1801, and is commemorated in the Denon Wing of the Louvre museum and in the Dominique-Vivant Denon Research Center.<ref name="louvre" /> His two-volume ''Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte'' ("Journey in Lower and Upper Egypt"), 1802, was foundational for modern [[Egyptology]].
==Birth and name== [[File:Vivant Denon.jpg|thumb|Vivant Denon with Jean Pesne's engraved ''Oeuvres de [[Nicolas Poussin]]'', portrait by [[Robert Lefèvre]] (Musée National du Château de Versailles)]]
Vivant Denon was born in Givry, near [[Chalon-sur-Saône]],<ref name="inha" /> to a family called "de Non", of the "petite noblesse" or [[gentry]], and until the [[French Revolution]] signed himself as "le chevalier de Non".<ref name="Nowinski23–25" /> Like many of the nobility, he revised his surname at the Revolution to lose the "[[nobiliary particle]]" "de". He seems to have consistently avoided using his baptised first name "Dominique", preferring his middle name "Vivant", and so is usually known as "Vivant Denon". He was created "Baron Denon" by Napoleon in August 1812, at the age of 65.
==Early life== He was sent to Paris to study law, but he showed a decided preference for art and literature, and soon gave up his profession. In his twenty-third year he produced a comedy, ''Le Bon Pére'', which obtained a ''succès d'estime'', as he had already won a position in society by his agreeable manners and exceptional conversational powers. He became a favorite of [[Louis XV]], who entrusted him with the collection and arrangement of a cabinet of medals and [[engraved gem|antique gems]] for [[Madame de Pompadour]], and subsequently appointed him ''[[attaché]]'' to the French embassy at [[St. Petersburg]].<ref name="EB1911" />
==Diplomatic career== [[File:Le représentant du peuple François en fonction2.jpg|thumb|Engraving by Denon of a Republican costume designed by [[Jacques-Louis David]]]]
On the accession of [[Louis XVI]], Denon was transferred to Sweden; but he returned, after a brief interval, to Paris with the ambassador [[Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes|M. de Vergennes]], who had been appointed foreign minister. In 1775 Denon was sent on a secret mission to Switzerland, and took the opportunity of visiting [[Voltaire]] at [[Ferney]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wilkinson|first=Toby|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8EXQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT50|title=A World Beneath the Sands: Adventurers and Archaeologists in the Golden Age of Egyptology|year=2020|publisher=Pan Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-76098-149-5|page=50|language=en}}</ref> He made a portrait of the philosopher, which was engraved and published on his return to Paris. His next diplomatic appointment was to [[Naples]], where he spent seven years, first as secretary to the embassy and afterwards as ''[[chargé d'affaires]]''. He devoted this period to a careful study of the monuments of ancient art, collecting many specimens and making drawings of others. He also perfected himself in [[etching]] and ''[[mezzotint]]o'' engraving.<ref name="EB1911" /> While in Naples he met Sir [[William Hamilton (diplomat)|William]] and [[Emma, Lady Hamilton|Lady Hamilton]] and he etched Lady Hamilton 'posing'.
The death of his [[Patronage|patron]], [[Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes]], in 1787, led to his [[Letter of credence|recall]], and the rest of his life was given mainly to artistic pursuits. On his return to Paris he was admitted a member of the [[Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture]] (1787). After a brief interval he returned to Italy, living chiefly at [[Venice]]. He also visited [[Florence]] and [[Bologna]], and afterwards went to Switzerland. While there he heard that his property had been confiscated, and his name placed on the list of the [[Proscription|proscribed]], and with characteristic courage he resolved at once to return to Paris: his situation was critical, but he was spared, thanks to the friendship of the painter [[Jacques-Louis David]], who obtained for him a commission to furnish designs for republican costumes. When the [[French Revolution|Revolution]] was over, Denon was one of the bands of eminent men who frequented the house of [[Joséphine de Beauharnais]]. Here he met [[Napoleon]], to whose fortunes he wisely attached himself.<ref name="EB1911" />
==Egypt and the Louvre== [[File:Buste Vivant Denon.jpg|thumb|Commemorative bust by [[Joseph Charles Marin]], shown at the [[Salon of 1827]] ([[Louvre]])]] [[File:Plate showing statues of Amenhotep III at Luxor, Egypt. Commissioned by Napoleon as a present to Josephine but she rejected it. From France. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.jpg|thumb|Plate showing statues of [[Amenhotep III]] at Luxor, Egypt. Commissioned by Napoleon as a present to Joséphine but she rejected it. French, [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], London]] At Bonaparte's invitation he joined the [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|expedition to Egypt]] as part of the arts and literature section of the [[Institut d'Égypte]], and thus found the opportunity of gathering the materials for his most important literary and artistic work.<ref>{{cite book|last=Russell|first=Terence M.|title=The Discovery of Egypt: Vivant Denon's Travels With Napoleon's Army|publisher=The History Press|date=2005|isbn=9780750941457}}</ref> He accompanied [[Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de Veygoux|General Desaix]] to [[Upper Egypt]], and made numerous sketches of the monuments of ancient art, sometimes under the very fire of the enemy. The results were published in his ''Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte'' (''Journey in [[Lower Egypt|Lower]] and Upper Egypt''), published as two volumes in 1802. The work crowned his reputation both as an archaeologist and as an artist, and sparked [[Egyptian Revival architecture]] and [[Egyptian Revival decorative arts|decorative arts]].<ref name="EB1911" />
[[File:Pavillon Denon at Le Louvre.jpg|thumb|Pavillon Denon at the [[Louvre]]]]
On 19 November 1802,<ref name="McClellan" /> he was appointed by Napoleon to the important office of director-general of museums and head of the new [[Musée Napoléon (Paris)|Musée Napoléon]], which he filled until the Allied occupation of Paris in 1814, when he had to retire.<ref name="Nowinski" /> He was a devoted servant of Napoleon, on whose behalf he [[Napoleonic looting of art|personally looted vast numbers of works of art]] in Italy, the Low Countries and Germany and, through agents (including [[Francisco Goya]]), in Spain, for the Musée Napoleon in Paris. Many of these remain in the [[Louvre]], and elsewhere in France, today. In particular, Denon was one of the first men to appreciate the importance of the Italian 'primitives'. The majority of those now in the Louvre were looted by Denon during a sweep he made through Italy in 1812. They were publicly paraded, with elephants and other wild animals, like a [[Roman triumph]], through the streets of Paris, before being deposited in the Louvre.
Denon took full opportunity, while working for Napoleon, to assemble for himself an enormous collection of paintings, drawings, prints, books, statuary and ''[[objets d'art]].'' This collection was sold at auction over several days after Denon's death. In 1810 he also assisted the [[Hermitage Museum]] in its acquisition of [[Rosso Fiorentino]]'s ''[[Madonna and Child with Cherubs]]'' in Paris.
==Retirement and death== [[File:The grave of Vivant Denon, Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.jpg|thumb|The grave of Vivant Denon, Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris]]
At the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]] of 1814 Denon was confirmed in place for a year, but was too closely associated with the former regime to keep the position for long, and was replaced by [[Auguste de Forbin]] in 1816. After his forced retirement he began an illustrated history of ancient and modern art, in which he had the cooperation of several skillful [[engraver]]s. He died at Paris in 1825, leaving the work unfinished. It was published posthumously, with an explanatory text by [[Amaury Duval]], under the title ''Monuments des arts du dessin chez les peuples tant anciens que modernes, recueillis par Vivant Denon'' in 1829.<ref name="EB1911" /> Denon was also the author of an [[erotic novel]], ''Point de lendemain'', published in 1777 (in 1812 as a separate work), and of a number of erotic etchings.<ref>See [[c:Oeuvre priapique|Oeuvre priapique by Vivant Denon]]</ref>
He died in [[Paris]] and is buried in the world famous [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]], where his grave is marked by a life-sized statue.
==Legacy==
In [[Napoleon III's Louvre expansion]] in the 1850s, Denon's name was given to the central pavilion of the Nouveau Louvre's South Wing. In the [[Grand Louvre]] project of the late 1980s, the entire South Wing of the [[Louvre Palace]] was named after him (''aile Denon'', echoing [[Cardinal Richelieu|Richelieu]] to the North and [[Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully|Sully]] to the East) as part of a signposting concept developed by the [[Carbone Smolan Agency]].
==Works== * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2kTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR71| author=Vivant Denon| others=Translator Arthur Aikin| publisher=Heard and Forman, for Samuel Campbell| year=1803| title=Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt during the campaigns of General Bonaparte in that country| volume=I }} * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=imUTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA131| author=Vivant Denon| others=Translator Arthur Aikin| publisher=Heard and Forman, for Samuel Campbell| year=1803| title=Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt during the campaigns of General Bonaparte in that country| volume=II }} * {{cite book| title=No Tomorrow| author=Vivant Denon| editor=Peter Brooks| others=Translator Lydia Davis| publisher=New York Review of Books| year=2009 | location = New York | isbn=978-1-59017-326-8 }} * {{cite book| title=Never again!: (Point de lendemain) and other stories| author=Claude Joseph Dorat| others=Translator Eric Sutton| publisher=Chapman & Hall, ltd.| year=1928 }} A note at the beginning of this book states 'Point De Lendemain, the authorship of which has also been attributed to Vivant Denon was first published in 1777'. Hence the authorship being stated as Dorat in Sutton's translation. * {{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/pointdelendemai01denogoog| quote=Point de lendemain.| title=Point de lendemain: conte dédiée à la reine| author=Vivant Denon| publisher=I. Liseux| year=1876 }}
==In fiction== [[Anthony O'Neill]] included the character of Vivant Denon in his novel ''The Empire of Eternity'', in which he is portrayed as bisexual.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Empire of Eternity| author=Anthony O'Neill| publisher=Random House| year=2006 | location = Milsons Point | isbn=978-1-74166-553-6 }}</ref>
[[Lee Langley]] has written a [[biographical novel]] of Denon's life, ''A conversation on the Quai Voltaire''.<ref>{{cite book| title=A conversation on the Quai Voltaire| author=Lee Langley| publisher=Chatto & Windus| year=2006 | location = London | isbn=978-0-7011-7912-0 }}</ref>
[[Ruth McKenney]] also includes the character of Vivant Denon in her novel ''Mirage''.<ref>{{cite book| title=Mirage| author=Ruth McKenney| publisher=Farrar, Straus and Cudahy| year=1956 }}</ref>
[[Milan Kundera]]'s ''[[Slowness (novel)|Slowness]]'' (1995) includes a rewriting of Vivant-Denon's ''Point de lendemain''.
==References and sources== <references> <ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Denon, Dominique Vivant, Baron de|volume=8 |page=45}}</ref> <ref name="inha">[http://www.inha.fr/fr/ressources/publications/publications-numeriques/dictionnaire-critique-des-historiens-de-l-art/denon-dominique-vivant.html Vivant Denon] in [[Institut national d'histoire de l'art]].</ref> <ref name="louvre">{{Cite web|url=http://www.louvre.fr/en/dominique-vivant-denon-research-center-0|title=The Dominique-Vivant Denon Research Center {{!}} Louvre Museum {{!}} Paris|date=2016-06-28|access-date=2017-08-22|archive-date=2017-08-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823034744/http://www.louvre.fr/en/dominique-vivant-denon-research-center-0|url-status=dead}}</ref> <ref name="McClellan">{{cite book|last=McClellan|first=Andrew|title=Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origins of the Modern Museum in 18th-century Paris|year=1994|publisher=University of California Press | location = Berkeley | isbn=978-0-520-22176-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUxG3N-t750C}}</ref> <ref name="Nowinski">{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oL4KiwiHlDQC&pg=PA24| title=Baron Dominique Vivant Denon (1747–1825): hedonist and scholar in a period of transition| author=Judith Nowinski| publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press| year=1970 | location = Rutherford, NJ | isbn=978-0-8386-7470-3}}</ref> <ref name="Nowinski23–25">Nowinski, 23–25</ref> </references>
==External links== {{Commonscat inline|Dominique Vivant Denon}} *{{Gutenberg author | id=25537}} *{{Internet Archive author |search=(Denon AND Vivant AND (Dominique OR "1747–1825" OR Denon))}} * [http://www.louvre.fr/en/dominique-vivant-denon-research-center-0 The Louvre Dominique-Vivant Denon Research Centre] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823034744/http://www.louvre.fr/en/dominique-vivant-denon-research-center-0 |date=2017-08-23 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Denon, Vivant}} [[Category:1747 births]] [[Category:1825 deaths]] [[Category:People from Saône-et-Loire]] [[Category:French archaeologists]] [[Category:French Egyptologists]] [[Category:French barons]] [[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]] [[Category:Directors of the Louvre]] [[Category:Commission des Sciences et des Arts members]] [[Category:Members of the Académie des beaux-arts]]