HUGIJENOT ARTISTS DESIGNERS AND CRAYPSNEN IN GREAT ...

60.
THE RUGUENOT CONTPTBUI2ION TO ART EDUCATION, LOUIS CHERON, L.F.ROTTBILIAC
AND THE ST. MARTIN'S LANE ACADEMY
It has already been noted that Huguenot refugees were considerea
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reliable tutors for the children of the British nobility and gentry.
The Huguenots were evidently motivated by a sense of responsibility
to communicate their knowledge and experience to the next generation,
and it is worth considering the role that the Huguenots played in
education in this country, when examining their contribution to art
education in detail.
One of the earliest Huguenot academies was run by Abrahn Meure,
a refugee, who was naturalized in 1687. His academy was certainly well
established by 1692 when access was made from the academy building to
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the French church in Hog Lane. Although the academy was primarily for
French protestants, by 170k, it included a son of Ralph Montagu; a
kinsman of the Earl of' Egmont, and two sons of Governor Thomas Pitt,
one of whom later became the 1st Earl of Londonderry. The academy
was esteemed the best in England, and was one of the first schools
to include drawing in its curriculum.3
Perhaps it was the same son of Ralph Montagu who received lessons
from 'Mr.Pelletier, designeing master', in 1706-7. Mr. Pelletier was
probably a member of the Huguenot family of cabinet-makers, who worked
for Ralph Montagu at Montagn House, in London, and at Boughton House,
Northamptonshire. The same account book contains payments to 'Mr. de
Moivre teaching my Lord Montagu', presumably the famous Huguenot
mathematician, Abraham de Moivre (1657-176k) later a member of the
Royal Society, arid to 'Mr.ffen. Foubert' for teaching.k Henry Foubert
opened a Riding Academy in Kingly Street, St. James' in 1696. His
father Solomon Foubert was the proprietor of a Riding Academy in
the Faubourg St. Germain in Paris, which he had been forced to close
as a result of persecution. In 1680, Solomon Foubert established a
Riding Academy in London, just south of present day Regent Street,
recorded in the name Foubert's Place.5
Many Huguenot artists boosted their income by teaching as a
side line. Jean Baptist Claude Chatelain (1710-1771) and William de La
Cour (d.1767) have both been mentioned as having produced drawing
manuals for the amateur. 6 Jacob Bonneau (d.1786) was a fashionable
drawing master of Huguenot descent, who also exhibited at the Royal
Academy. 7 Francois Toronde (17k2-1812), better known as a silhouettist,