Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

The demolition of Les Andelys was recorded in Voyages Pittoresques et Romantiques, a
massive work of illustrated topography that appeared from 1820 onwards with lithographed
plates. Edited by Charles Nodier (1780-1844) and the Baron Taylor (1789-1879) it was inspired
by the British topographic tradition. In scale and the quality of the illustrations, however, the
Voyages Pittoresques was more than a tribute it was a substantial technical and artistic advance.
It also revealed the growing tensions between the former allies. Taylor abhorred the behaviour of
the English and decried it in terms that emphasised the differences in national priorities:
Nous n’exprimerons pas de regrets aussi amers si toutes des productions des arts aveaient été transportées en
Angleterre pour en former un musée où nous pourrions aller admirer et étudier nos Antiquités nationals… Mais les
oeuvres d’art sont allées orner quelques châteaux ou quelques parcs de lords où l’on joue au Moyen Age à la Walter
Scott. [We would not feel such bitter resentment if all the these works of art had been taken to England to make a
museum where we could go to admire and study our national antiquities … but these works of art have gone to
decorate a few country houses or aristocratic parks where they play at the Middle Ages à la Walter Scott.] 172
Those houses and the business of playing at the Middle Ages are the subject of the next
chapter. What Taylor’s remark emphasises in this context is the continuation of the distinction
that Turner had noticed between France and England. For the French the state was the driving
force, while for the English it was the individual. At the beginning of the period this had given
the British an advantage and been a cause of envy among French antiquaries for the state was in
no position to support them. Millin complained to Dawson Turner in 1815 that he could not
publish his research because it was impossible to raise money from private subscribers in France,
government support, which was not just then forthcoming, was ‘the mainspring of all, to an
extent of which we happily have no idea in England’. 173 Under the Bourbons the situation had
remained much the same. With the exception of royal palaces little effort was made to preserve
national antiquities despite a rising tide of protest. 174
172
Nodier and Taylor, Voyages Pittoresques, Picardy, 1, f35
173
Turner, ‘Journal of a three weeks tour’ f 48.
174
See, however, Choay, The Invention of the Historic Monument, p. 80, which points out that more was done
between 1796 and 1830 than is generally recognised.
157