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Maître Jean-Paul RENOUD-GRAPPIN

27 - Jeanne Louise Genet, Madame CAMPAN (1752–1822).
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Estimate €1,000 - €1,200
Sale commission
Description
Jeanne Louise Genet, Madame CAMPAN (1752–1822). Autograph letter, Mantes-sur-Seine, 1 January 1819, to Mlle Juliette ROLLAND, c/o Colonel Cottin, Director of Artillery at La Fère; 7 pages, quarto, with address. A lovely, lengthy letter to a former pupil. She is delighted to find, year after year, ‘proof that that kind little heart and that keen judgement of yours, which I had noticed, had recognised my care and appreciated my truly maternal affection. I had sworn at the foot of the altar at Ecouen to serve as a second mother to these good little girls of our brave soldiers, and my heart had taken part in my vows. ‘Ever since my flock has been scattered, ever since I have been made an old shepherdess without a crook, I have been looking after my poor scattered sheep as best I can – I have found homes for several of them, and very good ones at that’… But she is deeply concerned for Colonel BALLEYDIER’s daughter. ‘Fifteen years ago, after the Battle of Austerlitz, I took in a little girl abandoned by a wicked mother’, whose father had been killed in a duel the day after the battle: ‘This man, of very good birth, was descended from an honourable family in Savoy; he had married ill. His wife was living in St Germain at the time; upon hearing of her husband’s death, she left, abandoning two children—a little girl lying on the straw, and a little boy in the care of a wet nurse. The success of my establishment served as my fortune, so I took the children in.” The mother was tracked down and was obliged to take her son back. ‘I kept the poor little girl – I sent her to Écouen when I moved there. She made little progress; I often scolded her, but to no avail; her character needed frequent correction and encouragement; when she went to Saint-Denis without me, she lost her protector. There she experienced some disillusionment, probably due to the wrongs of her childhood; in the end, she left a year before her time.’ Marshal MACDONALD sent her back to her mother, who ‘had her enter as a novice in a Trappist convent! The austerity of that order proved too much for her; Adeline Balleydier was forced to leave it’, and, having come to Paris, she turned to Madame Campan: ‘I felt that, for the sake of the honourable reputation of the French military, for my many pupils, for our institution in Écouen, and for myself, I had to save this poor, abandoned girl’. She organised a collection to clothe her, and placed her in the care of former teachers from her school in Saint-Germain: “Now she is sheltered from the cold, from hunger, and, more importantly, from shame.” But Mrs Campan’s limited means forced her to resort once more to fundraising. And she instructed Juliette to appeal to the soldiers at La Fère for charity to save Adeline: “My little niece Clémence Gamot, niece of La Male Ney, is my treasurer. Like me, her heart is deeply moved by all that we owe to the brave soldiers”… The young Balleydier “works four hours a day to make amends for the follies of her youth; we shall save her, we shall make her into a good person, God will help us”. Mrs Campan points out that she has thus been able to find placements for several of her poor girls, whose names she lists…
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About the sale AUTOGRAPHS & MANUSCRIPTS – PENNED BY HISTORY’S GREAT FIGURES
Auction location
Auction time 09/18/2026 at 2:00 PM
Ref. : 226165 - 109
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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