81 



GERARD, JEAN-IGNACE-ISIDORE. 



GERARDE, JOHN. 



the sculptor Fajou, and finally with David, aa he found painting bette 

 suited to his taste than sculpture. Gdrard'a first work of note wa 

 the ' Blind Belisarius ' carrying his dyin<* guide in his arms, painted in 

 1795 ; it is now in the Leuchtenberg Gallery at Munich, and is wel 

 known in prints. The next work which attracted notice was * Psyche 

 receiving the First Kiss from Cupid,' which, though extremely elaborate 

 in execution, is an inferior work to the Belisarius : its delicate execu 

 tion and academical drawing are nearly its only merits ; the figures arc 

 motionless and lifeless. Cupid and Psyche look like tinted statues 

 These however were not the works of the mature artist, and they 

 were followed by many admirable pictures in history, poetry, ant 

 portrait. 



Some of Gerard's works are among the best and largest oil-paintiugs 

 in existence. His entrance of Henry IV. into Paris (his masterpiece), 

 painted in 1817, is, in more than one sense, a prodigious work : it is 

 thirty French feet wide by fifteen high, and is almost one huge mass 

 of life and character ; the drawing is correct, vigorous, and varied, the 

 colouring vivid, and it is a perfect school of costume for the period : 

 it has been engraved by Toschi. This picture was painted for 

 Louis XVI 1 1. aa a substitute for the ' Battle of Austerlitz,' painted by 

 Gerard in 1810, and it procured him his title of Baron. The 'Battle 

 of Austerlitz,' and the ' Coronation of Charles X.,' painted in 1827, are 

 of the same vast proportionsjas the ' Henry IV.,' but they are as inferior 

 in execution as in subject. The ' Battle of Austerlitz ' is, like many 

 other of the large paintings of Napoleon's battles, little more than a 

 display of military uniforms, though it is superior to the majority of 

 the works of its clas?, and is equal to its subject : there is an engraving 

 of it by Godefroy. The ' Henry IV.' and the ' Battle of Austerlitz ' 

 are at Versailles. The ' Coronation of Charles X.' was nearly destroyed 

 iu the revolution of 1830 : but had it been entirely so, Gerard would 

 probably have rather gained than lost in reputation : a robe picture 

 is however a poor subject for any painter, but particularly for a great 

 painter. 



Of Gerard's small pictures, the best is perhaps ' Thetis Bearing the 

 Armour of Achilles,' painted in 1822, and purchased by Prince 1'ozzo 

 ili llorgo, of which there is an engraving by liichomme. Two such 

 works as the ' Henry IV.' and the ' Thetis' display rare powers for the 

 same painter ; and when we consider in addition that he was constantly 

 engaged in portrait painting, in which he was unsurpassed in France 

 in his own time, his title to the reputation of one of the great painters 

 of recent times is manifest A list of Gerard's portraits would almost 

 amount to a Hit of the most illustrious personages of his age : Pierre 

 Adaui has etched a collection of eighty full-length portraits after him, 

 seven inches and a half by five inches and a half, French ' Collection 

 d<H Portrait* Historiques de M. le Baron Gdrard, premier peintre du 

 Hoi, graves a 1'cau-forto par M. Pierro Adam, prdcedee d'uno Notice 

 aur le Portrait Historique.' 



Gerard died January 11, 1837 : he was a member of the Institute 

 of France ; a chevalier of the orders of St. Michel and the Legion 

 d'Honneur; and member of the academies of Munich, Vicuna, Berlin, 

 Turin, Milan, and Home. 



There are many notices of Gerard in the French and German 

 contemporary periodical press, 



::ARO, JEAN-IG.VACE-ISIDORE, but best known by his 



pseudonym, GRANDVILLE, one of the most eminent French carica- 

 and designers of illustrations for books, was born at Nancy in 

 1803. He went to Paris young, an adventurer without money, and 

 without friends ; after awhile got admission to the atelier of Lecomtc ; 

 managed to subsist by designing costumes, &c. ; then advanced to 

 making lithographic drawings ; and continued improving his artistic 

 powers and increasing his stores of observation till lb-8, when he 

 brought cut his ' Metamorphoses du Jour,' by Grandville, a series of 

 genial, piquant, and mirthful crayon commentaries and criticisms on 

 passing follies. These sketches had a prodigious success; Grand- 

 villa's position was secured ; and his pencil found abundant em- 

 ployment The revolution of 1830 interfered for a time with his 

 occupation ; but when familiarity had brought its inseparable 

 attendant, and the citizen king had come to be regarded by the 



i as a fair mark for the shafts of ridicule, Grandville made 



.f abundantly merry with the face and person of his sovereign 

 and the royal advisers. Grandville was the very soul of ' La Carica- 

 ture ' as long as his pencil was permitted its free exercise; but on the 

 promulgation of the law re-establishing the ' censure prualablo ' for 

 designs, he abandoned politics, and threw all hi* energy into the 

 making of drawings on wood for illustrated editions of classic authors, 

 &c. Here he found a new field of triumph. His drawings were in 

 their way almost the perfection of designs for engraving on wood. 

 Not merely were they admirably conceived, and excellent as exemplifi- 

 cations of the passages they were intended to illustrate, but clear, 

 correct, and vigorous in drawing, and brilliant in effect, they exhibited 

 remarkable aptitude for that particular kind of engraving. As illus- 



13 full of fancy, ingenuity, quaint and genuine humour, and 

 singularly suggestive, they not only pleased the eye, but really added 

 n n-w charm to the text Among the works he illustrated were 



v.-r's Travels,' ' Kobinson Crusoe,' ' La Fontaine's Fables,' 

 ' Bt:r:mger,' 'Jerome Paturot," Ac. Indefatigable in liibour, he pro- 

 duced an almost infinite number of designs, and yet his active fancy 

 showed no symptoms of exhaustion or even fatigue. 

 BIOO. mv. VOL. in 



But in the midst of his success, and in the very prime of his power?, 

 his labours were brought to a sad and sudden termination. A man of 

 domestic habits, and devotedly fond of his family, he had already had 

 the misfortune to lose two children within a brief spac.s of time by 

 some of the ordinary maladies of childhood, when his third child iu 

 attempting to swallow a piece of meat got it so firmly fixed in ita 

 throat that all attempts to remove it proved unavailing. An incision 

 was proposed aa the only remaining though dangerous remedy ; and 

 while Grandville hesitated whether to consent to the operation, the 

 child died in his arms. The shock was more than the unhappy father 

 could sustain : his intellect gave way, and he survived his child but a 

 short period. He died on the 17th of March 1847, aged forty-three. 



GERARD, MAURICE-ETIENNE, COMTE, Marshal of France, 

 waa a native of Danvilliers, in the department of the Meuse, and was 

 born April 4, 1773. He entered the army as a volunteer in 1791, and 

 first saw fire under Jourdan, at Fleurus. He was already a captain in 

 1793, and Bernadotte, who waa for many years his steadfast friend, 

 appointed him soon after one of his aides-de-camp. After the treaty 

 of Campo Formio he attended that general in hia embassy to Vienna, 

 and having saved his life during a riot, stimulated by the Austrian 

 police, a lasting friendship was established between them. In 1799 

 he becume a chef-d'escadron ; and at the battle of Austerlitz (Dec. 2, 

 1805) his good conduct was so conspicuous that he received the Cross 

 of tha Legion of Honour on the field. 



In ISOti Gerard waa appointed to a brigade ; and in 1S09, at tho 

 battle of Wagram, Bernadotte gave him the command of the Saxou 

 cavalry. He next went to serve in Spain, where he continued until 

 October 1S11, having been present at the battle of Albuera and 

 several others. 



Called to take part in the expedition- against Russia iu 1812, he 

 contributed to the capture of Smolensko ; and during the disastroua 

 retreat which followed the burning of Moscow he was placed as second 

 in command, under Marshal Ney, in the rear of the army. General 

 Gerard distinguished himself by many proofs of valour at the passage 

 of the Bcresiua, where, with a few regiments greatly reduced iu num- 

 bers, and consisting of half-famished men, he repeatedly sustained the 

 shock of an entire army.- In 1813 he commanded one of the divisions 

 of the llth corps, under Marshal Macdonald : he was present at the 

 battle of Bautzen, and hia exertions, which were inado on the impulse 

 of the moment and without orders, accelerated the victory. He 

 charged the enemy again without (or rather contrary to) orders at 

 Goldsberg, and routed the Prussians with great slaughter, for which 

 feat of arms the emperor gave him the command of the llth corps. 

 General G5rarJ was several times wounded, and very grievously at 

 the battle of Leipzic, October IS, 1813. During tho defence of the 

 French territory in 1814, his zeal and intrepidity were frequently 

 commended by Napoleon, especially at the victory of Montereau. 

 After his return from Elba, in 1815, the emperor gave him the com- 

 mand of the army of tho Moselle. On the 13th of June ho was under 

 the orders of Marshal Grouchy at Wavres, aud when the report of the 

 cannon was heard proceeding from the forest of Soiguies, Gdrard 

 recommended an immediate advance of Grouchy's army of reserve in 

 tbut direction. 



On the return of Louis XVIII., Gerard retired to Belgium, where 

 iu 1810 he married the daughter of General Valence. The following 

 year he was permitted to return to France. In 1830 Louis Philippe 

 created him marshal of France, aud appointed him minister of war, 

 but his health compelled him to resign this office a few mouths later. 

 In 1832 he was sent to besiege the fortress of Antwerp, defended by 

 the Dutch general Chasse, when, having compelled the garrison to 

 capitulate after a gallant defence, he returned to France aud was 

 made a peer. In 1834 the citizen king made him president of the 

 council, or prime minister ; but his declining health obliged him to 

 resign this office on the 29th of October, after which he withdrew 

 into private life. The provisional government of February 21, 1848, 

 raised Marshal Gdrard to the function of Grand Chancellor of tho 

 Legion of Honour. The marshal lived to sea tho restoration of the 

 Uouaparte dynasty : he died at Paris, Auyuat 17, 1852, aud was 

 'nterred iu the chapel of the Invalidea. 



GERARDE, JOHN, a famous herbalist of the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth, was born at Nantwich in Cheshire, in the year 1545, and 

 was educated as a surgeon. He removed to London, where he obtained 

 the patronage of Lord Burghley, who was himself a lover of plants, 

 and had the best collection iu hia garden of any nobleman in tho 

 kingdom. Gerarde had the superintendence of this tine garden, and 

 etaiued his employment, as ho tells us himself, for twenty years. 



Hia London residence waa in Holborn, where also he had a large 

 ihysic-garden of hia own, which was probably the first of its kind iu 

 England fur the number aud variety of its productions. It appears 

 .hat in his younger days ho had taken a voyage into the Baltic, since 

 le mentions having seen the wild pines growing about Narva. He 

 ,lso says of the bay or laurel-tree (' Herbal,' pp. 1177, 1223), " I have 



not seen any one tree thereof growing in Denmark, Suecia, Poland, 

 jivonia, or Russia, or in any of those wild countries where I have 

 ravelled." 



Among the Lansdowne manuscripts in the British Museum (No. cvii. 

 rt. 92) is a letter of Gerarde's own drawing up for Lord Uurghley to 

 end to the University of Cambridge, recommending the establish- 



