Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

Joseph Pilié, PLAN des terrains, représentant également la belle maison ainsi que les dependances, occupés par
Mr. J.A. Fort dans le Faubourg La Course/Dressé à la requisition de Mr. J.A. Fort/Nlle. Orléans le 18 Avril
1827/Jh Pilié/Voyer de la ville.
Joseph Pilié’s (q.v.) polished drawing of the Jean-Baptiste Marigny plantation complex (“the landscape representing equally the
beautiful house as well as the dependencies”) appeared long after Marigny’s death in 1805. At the time (1827), the plantation
buildings were intact and there was still a pathway to the river, but J.A. Fort was the owner, and the Faubourg LaCourse was growing
up around them. At the corner of the property, Annunciation Square would soon fill with Greek Revival houses, replacing the rural
buildings of an earlier generation.
Marigny’s parents, Pierre Philippe and Marie Jeanne D’Estrehan Marigny, had assembled the eleven-arpent plantation beginning in
1790, when Jean-Baptiste was nine years old. By 1800, both parents were deceased and Jean-Baptiste and his siblings Bernard and
Marie Celeste Marigny Livaudais inherited the estate. Jean-Baptiste received this property in a partition, but died childless a few years
later. After a second partition, his sister sold the plantation in 1807 to Pierre Robin Delogny, who developed the Faubourg LaCourse
around Annunciation Square in the Race Street (Rue de la Course) area.
The drawing is an excellent example of Joseph Pilié’s preferred drawing technique and palette at the peak of his career as City
Surveyor, with a complex of rooftops masterfully shaded to show their ascent. The procedure followed the technique of his drawing
teacher Barthelemy Lafon and of his predecessor as City Surveyor Jacques Tanesse, but neither of them ever achieved the finesse of
Pilié’s “indication” drawings. From his representations, combined with the scale at the bottom of the drawing and the property
measurements on the block, it is easy to compute the size, massing, and framing of these seven hipped roof buildings. A further
refinement is the depiction of ornamental gardens with their par terres and surrounding hedges of orange trees.
IMAGE ATTACHED ACT OF H.K. GORDON, NOTARY, MAY 2, 1827. COURTESY DALE N. ATKINS, CLERK OF CIVIL DISTRICT COURT, PARISH OF ORLEANS, NOTARIAL
ARCHIVES DIVISION.
NOTABLE NEW ORLEANIANS: A Tricentennial Tribute
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