16 Facts About Vivant Denon

Vivant Denon was created "Baron Denon" by Napoleon in August 1812, at the age of 65.

Vivant Denon was sent to Paris to study law, but he showed a decided preference for art and literature, and soon gave up his profession.

Vivant Denon became a favorite of Louis XV, who entrusted him with the collection and arrangement of a cabinet of medals and antique gems for Madame de Pompadour, and subsequently appointed him attache to the French embassy at St Petersburg.

In 1775 Vivant Denon was sent on a secret mission to Switzerland, and took the opportunity of visiting Voltaire at Ferney.

Vivant Denon made a portrait of the philosopher, which was engraved and published on his return to Paris.

Vivant Denon devoted this period to a careful study of the monuments of ancient art, collecting many specimens and making drawings of others.

Vivant Denon visited Florence and Bologna, and afterwards went to Switzerland.

Vivant Denon accompanied General Desaix to Upper Egypt, and made numerous sketches of the monuments of ancient art, sometimes under the very fire of the enemy.

Vivant Denon was a devoted servant of Napoleon, on whose behalf he personally looted vast numbers of works of art in Italy, the Low Countries and Germany and, through agents, in Spain, for the Musee Napoleon in Paris.

In particular, Vivant Denon was one of the first men to appreciate the importance of the Italian 'primitives'.

Vivant Denon took full opportunity, while working for Napoleon, to assemble for himself an enormous collection of paintings, drawings, prints, books, statuary and objets d'art.

At the Bourbon Restoration of 1814 Vivant Denon was confirmed in place for a year, but was too closely associated with the former regime to keep the position for long, and was replaced by Auguste de Forbin in 1816.

Vivant Denon died at Paris in 1825, leaving the work unfinished.

Vivant Denon was the author of an erotic novel, Point de lendemain, published in 1777, and of a number of erotic etchings.

Vivant Denon died in Paris and is buried in the world famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where his grave is marked by a life-sized statue.

In Napoleon III's Louvre expansion in the 1850s, Vivant Denon's name was given to the central pavilion of the Nouveau Louvre's South Wing.