A PhD student in art history, Mary Etienne, traces the steps of another sculptor, Henri-Joseph Rutxhiel, born in Lierneux in 1775. He studied under Léonard Defrance at the École Centrale in the Ourthe department (Liège). In Paris, he served his apprenticeship in the workshop of the sculptor Houdon, then studied under the great David. He participated in the construction of several monuments, including the Column of the Grande Armée and the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur. In 1808, he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome for a relief entitled Dédale attachant des ailes à son fils Icare (Daedalus Attaching Wings to his Son Icarus). He is also known for a colossal statue of Napoleon that can still be seen at the Palace of Versailles. This did not prevent him from becoming the official sculptor of the Bourbons when they regained power, nor from making busts of important figures of the new regime, as he had done under the Empire. In 1820, he completed a magnificent statue of Bossuet which still sits imposingly in the Meaux Cathedral.

Du Mont and Grétry

A survey of the exchanges between Versailles and Wallonia would be incomplete without mentioning the names of a few important court musicians. This task has fallen to Professor Philippe Vendrix. Competition may have been stiffer in the field of music than in other areas. Italian musicians ruled supreme over the stage. Two Belgians did make their mark, however: Du Mont and Grétry. The former was born in Looz around 1610 and moved to Paris in 1643. A reputable organist, he won honours and offices, became the harpsichordist for the Duke of Anjou, brother of the King, and musical organist for the Queen, and finally under-master at Versailles’s Chapelle Royale. He was also a prolific composer, his pieces being destined for the Chapelle, motets and plainchant masses which would be sung well after the Revolution.

André-Modeste Grétry (Liège 1741-Montmorency 1813) arrived in Paris in 1767. He quickly created a network of contacts there which, combined with his talent, allowed him to introduce himself into the Court and become its darling. Commissions abounded, and his works were performed at the Court and in Paris (he was “adulated in the French capital”, says Philippe Vendrix), and soon after, across Europe.

The volume is accompanied by a CD with recordings of the works of Du Mont and a half-dozen other composers. Excerpt from the Messe Royale by Henry Du Mont (Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr Ensemble, Emmanuel Mandrin, organist and director).

Other contributions complete this overview, including those on Rennequin Sualem, the inventor of the famous Marly machine, and of course those that relate the story of the Belgian marble that would be used to build the Palace of Versailles.