And today is the last day of my visit

As it is Sunday, we have had a lie in and then come into town. Anne and Michael have gone to a choir rehearsal at the Opera House (we were hoping that I could go and listen but it is a closed session) and I have been museum visiting.

At the Musee Fabre I went to see an exhibition of work by Louis Gauffier. He was a painter of the late 18thC who won the Prix de Rome just before the French Revolution. He painted a range of classical views and portraits of travellers on the Grand Tour.

Although we do not seem to have any of his paintings at Stourhead, I would imagine that Richard Colt Hoare might well have met him in Italy as they obviously moved in the same circles.

These are some of the paintings – one or two of them from Edinburgh, Cambridge, Kenwood and the MCC!

This is a reproduction of the drawing room of Thomas Hope, a leader of style in Regency London and one of Gauffier’s leading patrons. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hope_(designer).
This is Elizabeth Webster, soon to be Lady Holland (of Holland Park), her son and tiny spaniel .
This is her husband, Charles Webster. Not what you’d call a responsible citizen.
This dashing gentleman is General Thomas Alexandre Dumas, father and grandfather to the novelists called Alexandre. He was a leading light in the revolutionary army. He quarrelled with Napoleon (who he accused of promoting people because he knew them, rather than on their ability) and was imprisoned for two years. It is thought that his son’s novel, The Count of Monte Christo, is based on him.

I also went to a photographic exhibition at the Pavillon Populaire. Interesting photos but some of them displayed in ways that made them difficult for several people to look at the same time.

Tonight we are going out to dinner and tomorrow morning I leave for the long trek home. Nice talking to you.

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