Carved and painted wood; marble.
H. 91 cm. (36 in.); W. 126 cm. (49 ¾ in.); D. 59 cm. (23 ¼ in.).
PROVENANCE: collection of the Dukes of Mortemart at the château du Réveillon, at Entrains-sur-Nohain, in the Nièvre region, France.
Born on June 17, 1856 in Saint-Vrain in Essonne, Arthur Casimir Victurnien de Rochechouart of Mortemart was the son of François Marie-Victurnien de Rochechouart (1832-1893), Duke of Mortemart, and Virginie-Marie-Louise de Sainte-Aldegonde (1835-1900). He inherited his father’s titles on the latter’s death. On June 8, 1880, he married Hélène von Hunolstein (1859 – 1904) in Paris. It is due to this marriage that the Dukes of Mortemart came into possession of château du Réveillon in the Nièvre region.
The grand Château du Réveillon, which overlooks the small town of Entrains and the upper reaches of Nohain in the Nièvre region, was built in the mid-19th century, replacing an old fortified house, the seat of an ancient seigneury held from the 12th to the 16th century by the de Veauce family. After several transfers, the Réveillon was bought in 1809 by Count Antoine Roy, a minister during the Restoration, and remained in his descendants until the present day, passing through marriage into great families. Count Roy had undertaken the complete reconstruction of the château, which was completed during the Second Empire, in the neo-Louis XIII style in vogue at the time, by his great-grandson by marriage, Count Joseph Philippe Léopold von Hunolstein, father of Hélène von Hunolstein.
