Drawings by Frédéric Christophe de Houdetot [1797-1835]
 
   User's guide to the collection of drawings by Frédéric Christophe Houdetot

 User's guide specifications

Search tools
available

1. Brief inventory of the drawings in the Houdetot collection:225 information files.
Search criteria: inventory number, subject, place, date, full record.
To see the full list of documents, perform a search leaving all fields empty.

2. Page-through the album by page

Key words for the contents First Empire; Iconography; Portraits; Conseil d'Etat. see Research Topics.

 
  Search tool

 Searching the inventory

Contents of the inventory Brief description of each drawing from the Houdetot album
Number of records 225 drawing descriptions (one record for each individual drawing)
Display 3 steps:
1. search form
2. list of results
3. drawing, full entry, sometimes with a biography.
Note: To see the full list of drawings, perform a search leaving all fields in the inventory empty.
Benefit Enables you to find all the drawings done in a particular place (from a list of places) and therefore possibly portraits of local dignitaries or of a particular individual (from a list of people).



 Structure of the entry

9 description fields.
5 search criteria (highlighted in grey).
The search can also be performed on the whole entry.
Number Number allocated to each document in the album, from 1 to 225.
Subject Name of each person portrayed (search field only)
Analysis Analysis of the subject (search field only): post, sex.
Place Place named on the drawing. As the collection is of portraits only, this refers always to the place where the drawing was done and not to a depiction of the place.
Date Date given on the portrait, considered to be the date it was drawn.
Title Display field giving the name of the individual depicted and his post.
Dimensions Dimensions of the original drawing in millimetres
Technique Technique used (pencil, pen-and-ink, etc.)
Biography Where it has been possible to identify precisely the subject, a brief bibliographical note is given.

 
   Research topics

The figures depicted, particularly the members of the Conseil d'Etat, often known from official engravings printed from stereotyped plates in the case of conseillers d'Etat or the occasional rare depiction of a man who subsequently had a significant career (Alexandre de Laborde, for example), are shown here in the flower of their youth.

An original iconography on the First Empire: the details of the drawings, such as hairstyles and dress, make them a rich and as yet little-used documentary source.

The depiction of local dignitaries may be useful in the context of local history studies or genealogical research, particularly for the towns of Sannois and Château-Salins.