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Pierre Crozat (1661 – 1740) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
art collector and brother of
Antoine CrozatAntoine Crozat, Marquis du Châtel , French founder of an immense fortune, was the first private proprietary owner of French Louisiana from 1712 to 1717....
.
Crozat was born in
ToulouseToulouse is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,102,882 inhabitants as of Jan...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, the son of peasants. He and his brother
AntoineAntoine Crozat, Marquis du Châtel , French founder of an immense fortune, was the first private proprietary owner of French Louisiana from 1712 to 1717....
were opportunistic self-made men, rising from obscurity to become two of the wealthiest merchants in France - Pierre was known ironically as
Crozat le pauvre. He was one of the most prominent French financiers and collectors, becoming the treasurer to the king in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and gradually acquiring a magnificent collection of pictures and
objets d'art.
thumb
Pierre Crozat (1661 – 1740) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
art collector and brother of
Antoine CrozatAntoine Crozat, Marquis du Châtel , French founder of an immense fortune, was the first private proprietary owner of French Louisiana from 1712 to 1717....
.
Crozat was born in
ToulouseToulouse is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,102,882 inhabitants as of Jan...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, the son of peasants. He and his brother
AntoineAntoine Crozat, Marquis du Châtel , French founder of an immense fortune, was the first private proprietary owner of French Louisiana from 1712 to 1717....
were opportunistic self-made men, rising from obscurity to become two of the wealthiest merchants in France - Pierre was known ironically as
Crozat le pauvre. He was one of the most prominent French financiers and collectors, becoming the treasurer to the king in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and gradually acquiring a magnificent collection of pictures and
objets d'art. He was the principal patron of
Antoine WatteauJean-Antoine Watteau was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of interest in colour and movement , and revitalized the waning Baroque idiom, which eventually became known as Rococo...
and other early
RococoRococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings...
artists.
From 1714 until the puirchase was finally concluded in 1721, he worked as agaent and negotiator for the Regent,
Philippe II, Duke of OrléansPhilippe Charles d'Orléans, petit-fils de France, Duke of Orléans , was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...
, on the purchase in Rome of the art collection of Queen Christina of Sweden for the
Orleans CollectionThe Orléans Collection was a very important collection of over 500 paintings formed by the French prince of the blood Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, mostly acquired between about 1700 and his death in 1723...
.
Between 1729 and 1742, a finely illustrated, two-volume work was published, known as the
Cabinet Crozat, including some of the finest pictures in French collections.
Most of Crozat's treasures were inherited by his nephews, Louis François (d. 1750), Joseph Antoine (d. 1750), and Louis Antoine (d. 1770), who added to them. They were dispersed after their deaths; the collection of Louis Antoine Crozat was bought, through
Denis DiderotDenis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
, by
Catherine II of RussiaCatherine II , also known as Catherine the Great, born . She was Empress of Russia from until . Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines...
and went to the
Hermitage MuseumThe State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture situated in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
in St Petersburg.