Jeanne Louise Genet, Madame CAMPAN (1752-1822)... - Lot 268 - Ader

Lot 268
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Estimation :
1000 - 1500 EUR
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Result : 768EUR
Jeanne Louise Genet, Madame CAMPAN (1752-1822)... - Lot 268 - Ader
Jeanne Louise Genet, Madame CAMPAN (1752-1822) reader of Mesdames filles de Louis XV, secretary and confidante of Marie-Antoinette, teacher and pedagogue, she directed the Maison d'éducation de la Légion d'Honneur d'Écouen. L.A., 9 nivôse VI (29 December 1797), to Caroline d'Hyenville; 4 pages in-4 (small accident without missing at the top of the letter). Interesting letter to a former student, about the future Queen Hortense. She sends him, despite the high cost of postage, "little nonsense from your companions [...] Hortense is in Paris. The general [Napoleon Bonaparte] who arrived before his mother [Joséphine] was so pleased with her modesty, her bearing, her talents, that he wished to thank me and invited me to dinner [...] he told me that if Mr. Bonaparte shared his wish, Hortense would come back to me. She hopes to be able to keep "this amiable child who has given me nothing but satisfaction, and does me infinite honors"... She has had to send back Mrs. Lagoutraye "who messed up my whole house and made a lot of fuss, [...She had to dismiss Mrs. Lagoutraye "who was messing up my whole house and was making a lot of fuss, [...] she came out of it like Medea, or to make a comparison more analogous to her character, like Molière's Tartuffe when he puts on his hat and says that he will lose the honest people who took him in"... Swearing that Mrs. Campan was going to lose her establishment, she went to see all the parents describing her "as a terrorist democrat [...] because I said that General Bonaparte should be compared with the greatest captains of antiquity", a truth that will nevertheless remain in history. She also accused him of neglecting the duties of religion for his students, and of being "mean as the devil", etc... : "Let's leave so many horrors, they afflict humanity and one is particularly affected to see them in classes that should have true piety"... She then recounts the terrible misfortunes of a pupil, "my little Sophie whom I love madly", whose father has just married "the actress Lange of the Rue Feideau, the irritated mother found a way to have her kidnapped", which caused a violent brawl between the father's servants and the mother's people: "the poor child had her clothes torn to pieces while they were fighting for her, but her pure little heart [...] was torn even more than her clothes". Her mother keeps her in an unknown place while waiting for the trial, not wanting to leave her in the hands of a woman of the theater, etc... She will soon send the little gift for her dear Caroline: "it is ready, but I urge her to work hard"... Attached is a P.A.S. on the letterhead of the Maison d'éducation de la Citoyenne Campan, Compte rendu aux Parens des Pensionnaires", Caroline d'Hyenville's bulletin, 1st Floréal IV (April 20, 1796): very complimentary bulletin, with receipt of the sum of 500 fr in assignats (1 page in-4 partly printed).
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