This charming and rather fascinating late 18th-century French portrait depicts cavalry officer Pierre de Brazy de Montoy (1740-1834), a captain in the Régiment Royal-Champagne. Painted during the closing years of the Ancien Régime, it captures a man whose world was about to change beyond recognition.
Born in Metz, Brazy was raised within a prosperous family and spent his formative years at the Château de Montoy, which his father acquired in 1748. He later pursued a military career, rising to captain in the (wonderfully named) Royal-Champagne cavalry and becoming, according to an old label on the reverse, a Chevalier of the prestigious Ordre Royal et Militaire de Saint-Louis.
Here, he appears every inch the assured royal officer. His powdered hair is neatly tied, his uniform immaculate, and the red ribbon of the Saint-Louis decoration rests prominently upon his chest. There's a calm confidence to his expression, perhaps that of a man entirely comfortable with his place in society.
Yet within only a few years, the foundations of that society were crumbling…
In 1790, with the French Revolution gathering pace, Royal-Champagne was stationed at Hesdin when tensions between its soldiers and officers erupted into open mutiny. The men challenged their commanders, demanded access to the regimental accounts and eventually refused orders. The affair became so serious that the National Assembly intervened and troops were brought into Hesdin, where the regiment was surrounded with cannon trained upon it.
Among Brazy's fellow officers was the nineteen-year-old Louis-Nicolas Davout, later one of Napoleon's most celebrated marshals. Davout sided with the soldiers and was imprisoned, while other officers chose very different paths as revolutionary politics tore through the old royal army.
Precisely where Brazy stood amid these extraordinary events remains unclear. But as a captain, he was at the centre of a regiment forced to confront questions of loyalty, authority and survival that would have been almost unimaginable when this portrait was painted.
It's this which makes the work particularly compelling. We see Brazy suspended in time: a gentleman raised at a château, wearing the uniform of the King's cavalry and the decoration of a royal military order, shortly before the Revolution swept much of that familiar world away.
Remarkably, he survived long enough to see what followed. Born during the reign of Louis XV, Brazy lived through the Revolution, the Republic, the rise and fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. He died in 1834 at the age of 94.
One can only imagine the stories he had to tell.
Held within a gilt frame. An old label on the reverse identifies the sitter and records his military rank, decoration and family connections.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 31½” x 37½” / 85cm x 95cm
Year of creation: c. 1780
Labels & Inscriptions: Old label on the reverse identifying Pierre de Brazy de Montoy (1740-1834), captain in the Régiment Royal-Champagne cavalerie and Chevalier de Saint-Louis.
Provenance: Private collection, France.
Condition: Cleaned. Revarnished. Canvas relined. Later stretcher. Historic repairs. Craquelure throughout. The paint layer is stable. Areas of bitumen in some of the dark areas. Frame with various marks and showing its age.
Our reference: BRV2349
