Pierre Victor, baron de Besenval de Brünstatt (14 October 1721, Solothurn, Switzerland - 2 June 1791, Paris), the last commander of the Swiss Guards in France. The son of Jean Victor de Besenval, a colonel of the regiment of Swiss Guards and diplomat in the service of France, the younger Besenval served first as aide-de-camp to the duc de Broglie during the campaign of 1748 in Bohemia, then as aide-de-camp to the duc d'Orleans during the Seven Years' War. He then became commander of the Swiss Guards and a popular courtier at Versailles. A particular favorite of Marie Antoinette and her circle, witty and charming, he was also a passionate collector of art and objects. In the days leading up to the French Revolution, he was given command of the troops which the king had concentrated in Paris. But at the storming of the Bastille, he proved incompetent, fled the capital, was arrested, tried, but miraculously acquitted. He retired to his
hôtel in the rue de Grenelle where he sat for this portrait the following year, the same year he died at the age of sixty-nine.
Today he's remembered primarily as the author of his Mémoires, published in 1805 to 1807 by the vicomte de Ségur. Full of scandalous stories of the court of Louis XVI, both true and false, the authenticity of the memoirs is far from certain. (The vicomte was actually Besenval's son, rather than that of the baron's best friend, Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur.)
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Prominent in Danloux's charming portrait of the baron - the connoisseur sitting surrounded by his beautiful things - are three
bronze doré mounted Chinese celadon vases, the visible half of the
garniture de cheminée in the baron's
salon de compagnie. The six vases - three pairs - were sold in 1795, four years after the death of the baron, but were briefly reunited before being auctioned by Christie's London. (The auction actually closed just last week. 8 July 2021, to be precise... which also happened to be my birthday.)
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