GÉLIGNY. Pierre-Antoine. - Lot 843

GÉLIGNY. Pierre-Antoine. [Suite of watercolors of a prisoner in Spain]. (1793-1802). Seven gouache drawings on blue or white laid paper, mounted on heavy paper, some framed framed with a black border or surrounded by a border of glued gold paper. Some are both. From rectangular, all between 40 cm wide and 60 cm long. Title and date in ink at the bottom of the recto of view a, "Vue de l'intérieur d'une Prison, inventée et Dessinée par Géligny, prisonnier de Guerre en Espagne (a Valladolida), le 28 Vendémiaire An 3". Views c, d and e are signed in ink "Géligny inv'" and some are dated. Conemporan handwritten poems (ink) on verso of views b and d and on recto of view a. Some minor foxing and tears. "As for his probity, education, zeal and intelligence, I cannot refuse without injustice to pay him the praise he deserves. the praise he deserves..." according to Boizot, Ingénieur en chef des Ponts et Chaussées, about Pierre Antoine Géligny. Pierre Antoine Géligny, engineer since 1791. The young engineer was conscripted into the Revolutionary Army. On his way to work on the Limbourg bridge, he was taken prisoner by the Spanish from 28 Vendémiaire of An III to 18 Vendémiaire of An IV, from Vittoria to Burgos, and finally to Valladolid, which seems to have left a particularly strong impression on him. Géligny was seriously ill, both physically and morally, and began his painted prose - he dates the first of his views of France to year III and his last watercolor is dated 1802. For several years, Géligny mediated his suffering and anguish in drawings. Boizot still describes him as a "martyr" and in an "unpleasant state of dementia". Géligny died in July 1809, in Paris, where he had been born. Poor and isolated.