Cloistre de Port-Royal des Champs (The Cloister of Port-Royal des Champs),

Artist/Maker Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels (French, 1686 - 1767)

Artist/Makerprobably after Madeleine de Boullogne (French, 1646 - 1710)

Date1709

MediumEngraving

DimensionsComposition: 4 5/8 × 6 1/8 in. (11.7 × 15.6 cm) Sheet (trimmed to edges of plate): 5 1/8 × 6 5/8 in. (13 × 16.8 cm)

Credit LineTransferred from Burke Library

Object number1994.71

Not on view

DescriptionLouise-Magdeleine Horthemels belonged to a family of engravers, including her two sisters, her husband, and their son and three daughters. She engraved more than sixty plates in her lifetime, many of which were commissioned to reproduce works by well-known artists such as Charles Le Brun and Nicolas Lancret. These two prints are from a series of twenty-two views of the abbey of Port-Royal des Champs, describing its architecture in detail and recording the daily activities of its nuns. The abbey was founded in 1204 by the Benedictine order in the area of Chevreuse, southwest of Paris, but in 1625–26, the community moved to Paris proper. Forty years later, as a punishment for not agreeing to condemn Jansenism—a movement within the Catholic Church that favored personal freedom over monarchical and papal absolutism—most of the nuns were sent back to the original site, where they were ordered to remain and were denied the sacrament. In 1708, partly on account of Louis XIV’s continued suspicion of the nuns, a papal bull decreed that the abbey be closed. In 1709, the nuns vacated the abbey, and the following year, its buildings were razed. The prints may have been created after a series of gouaches today in the collection of the Musée National du Château de Versailles that are attributed to another female artist, Madeleine de Boullogne. Horthemels’s first published print appeared in 1707; thus, this series was produced toward the beginning of her career. The engraver herself subscribed to Cornelius Jansen’s theology, as did Boullogne, as the latter is known to have frequently visited the abbey. Horthemels’s copper plates were destroyed along with the abbey in 1710. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

Collections

European Art

Additional Details

Alternate Titles The Abby of Port Royal des Champs: Cloistre de Port-Royal des Champs

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 31, illus.).

Provenance 1994: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by transfer from Burke Library;
date unknown - 1994: Hamilton College (Burke Library);
...
1881 - date unknown: W. Gilman Jr., by purchase at auction from M. Vignères, Paris.

Markings None noted.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 102;

Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Friends of Art Newsletter, August 1995, Acquisitions 1994;

Elizabeth Poulson, "Louise-Magdeleine Horthemels: Reproductive Engraver," WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL, vol. 6, No. 2 (Autumn, 1985-Winter, 1986), pp. 20-23, fig. 1, p. 21.

Signature Signed "Magd. Horthemels fec." in plate at lower left.

Inscribed "CLOISTRE DE / PORT-ROYAL / DES CHAMPS" in plate at upper center; "12" in plate at upper right;