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431 - Jacques-Nicolas BILLAUD-VARENNE (1756–1819), a Montagnard me…
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Estimate €800 - €1,000
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Description
Jacques-Nicolas BILLAUD-VARENNE (1756–1819), a Montagnard member of the Convention and a member of the Committee of Public Safety, deported to French Guiana after 9 Thermidor. Letter from the author, ‘at the estate known as Chevreuil’ [French Guiana], 2 Thermidor Year VII [20 July 1799], to his wife Angélique; two and a half pages, folio (a few old stains). A beautiful and moving letter to his wife, written from his exile in French Guiana. He laments the silence of his dear Angélique, finding their separation and the scarcity of her letters increasingly difficult to bear. ‘You are the only treasure I have on earth; if indeed I may apply that name to an object from which I am separated by two thousand leagues […] I blame only my fate, which has decreed that I should endure every conceivable kind of torment. What courage is required to have to swallow so much bitterness without succumbing! I have come to feel as though I have been abandoned by those dearest to my heart, stripped of any means of supporting myself, and reduced to living almost on charity […]. Be that as it may, I do not forget that the misfortunes I suffer stem from my devotion to the Republic, and whilst this consoling thought may not erase them, it at least greatly lessens their bitterness, giving me the strength needed to endure them with steadfastness’.… He can no longer bear the humiliation of having to beg to survive, so he implores him to send him some financial support. He had entrusted his last letter to a friend, who was killed during a naval battle: ‘In that letter I told you that I had left Sinnamary. Having found refuge in a cottage, this solitary dwelling suits my character no less than my circumstances. This isolation, which would drive another to despair through boredom, pleases me greatly because of the tranquillity it affords me. Busy with rural pursuits, I have almost realised the plan we had formed to spend the rest of our days here in such peace. However, quite apart from the heartfelt pleasures which my poverty makes me long for so much, nature here is so wild, its appearance so forbidding, that instead of lifting the spirit with a cheerful glance, this gloomy and sinister spectacle only adds a darker hue to the shadows of melancholy’... He remained unwell and was unable to take advantage of the colony’s commander’s return to France to send him news. ‘The climate in which I live is so devastating to one’s health that it is almost a miracle to enjoy several days in a row without any ill effects. Moreover, whether it withstands this climate or succumbs to it, rest assured that you will not leave my heart until death has frozen it.” He speaks movingly of his wife’s harp, which ‘conveys, through harmonious sounds, gentle and soothing sensations to the soul’. He was saddened to hear of Méhul’s death: ‘His candour, like his talents, made him precious; and it is an immeasurable loss to the art in which he excelled’... He asks for news of his colleague Ruamps: ‘A person with whom I have been acquainted since my earliest childhood cannot remain indifferent to one who clings to life solely through the affectionate feelings it has inspired in him’...
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About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part II
Auction location
Auction time 10/14/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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