Nicolas Besnier (1686-1754) was the son of François Besnier – the Chef du gobelet of the French king – and Henriette Delaunay. His uncle was the goldsmith Nicolas Delaunay and his godfather the sculptor Corneille Van Clève. Nicolas Besnier made the journey to Italy between October 1709 to October 1712 to study Architecture at the Académie de France in Rome. There he won the first prize for architecture at the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1711.
Besnier became a Master goldsmith in 1714 and held lodgings in the galleries of the Louvre from 1718. A letter of patent dated 1st September 1723 appointed him goldsmith to the king. He worked for the French court, notably in replacing the king’s ordinary dinner service, and in supplying diplomatic requirements, as well as for a number of important patrons including: the comte de Tarroca, the comte de Pontchartrain, the duchesse de Retz, the duchesse d’Harcourt, the maréchal de Castries, the duc de Bouillon, the duc and duchesse de Levy, Horatio Walpole, Gaspard- César-Charles de Lescalopier, William Bateman, the church of Saint-Louis-en-l’ile, and the court of Wurtemberg He became alderman of the city of Paris in August 1729 at which point he chose to collaborate with his son-in-law Jacques Roëttiers de La Tour, to whom he handed the direction of his goldsmith’s workshop. Besnier left his lodgings at the Louvre in 1739 and gave up his goldsmith’s punch on the 1 April 1744. This the first biography of the important French architect and goldsmith and the work draws on hitherto unpublished sources.
Author: Christophe Huchet de Quénetain
Published by: Presses universitaires de Rennes, Art & Société
EAN13: 9782753594753
ISBN: 978-2-7535-9475-3
