Provenance
Sale: Christie’s London, June 13, 2007, lot 1
Literature
L.A. Karnauhova, T.G. Dmitrieva, S.I. Arkhangelsky, Vladimir Ivanovich Hau: Russian Intimate Portrait, Moscow, 2010, p. 185, no. 116
The sitter of this elegant watercolour by Vladimir Hau was Pierre Louis Auguste Ferron, Count de La Ferronnays (1777–1842), French statesman, ambassador to Russia (1819-1827), Minister of Foreign Affairs of France (1828-29)
Count de La Ferronnays, a staunch supporter of the Old Regime, fled France during the years of the Revolution and joined the army of Émigrés in 1792; he served as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Berry and carried out diplomatic assignments for the emigrant court, including visiting Russia in 1812, where he negotiated with Alexander I and met his three brothers – Konstantin, Nikolai and Mikhail. Later, Count de La Ferronnays developed a close friendship with Nikolai Pavlovich, the future Emperor Nicholas I.
At the Bourbon Restoration, he was appointed brigadier and peer of France in 1815, he served as ambassador to Denmark, and in 1819, was appointed to the post of ambassador to Russia. In 1825, Count de La Ferronnays became an eyewitness to the Decembrist uprising. His detailed reports to the French Foreign Minister Baron de Damas about the events of those days are known.
