Maurice Leloir

Edward Strahan, The Art Treasures of America, Philadelphia, 1879, vol. II, p. 25, and in the 1977 facsimile edition, vol. II, p. 78 and illustrated opp. pg. 74

Voltaire was an intellectual giant in the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.  His keen wit, philosophical essays, tragic plays, and satirical writing called for social, civil and political reform and brought him controversy and punishment by a censoring royal government. Largely because Voltaire's work was pointedly directed toward Paris' ruling class, the writer spent very little time in the city, serving long periods of exile in England, Prussia and Switzerland before returning to France where he had an estate in Ferney. In 1779, at the age of 83, struggling with a serious illness, Voltaire completed yet another groundbreaking, scandal provoking play, Irene.  Selected by the National Theater, Irene inspired Voltaire to summon the strength and courage to return to Paris to supervise production.  After a nearly thirty-year absence from the city, he was met with a hero's welcome as crowds of admirers, from humble peddlers to wealthy merchants, spilled onto the streets to catch a glimpse of his coach passing.  In the days following his arrival, Voltaire greeted over 300 visitors including Marie Antoinette, courtesan Madame du Barry, Denis Diderot and even Benjamin Franklin, who brought his grandson to be blessed by the great mind. John Morley, an important biographer of Voltaire, wrote of his last visit to Paris as a, "reception [that] has been described over and over again. It is one of the historic events of the century. No great captain returning from a prolonged campaign of difficulty and hazard crowned by the most glorious victory ever received a more splendid and far sounding greeting. It was the last great commotion in Paris under the old régime" (A Biographical Critique of Voltaire, New York, 1901). 

It is this "great commotion" that Leloir portrays in the present work. In a deeply receding picture space, the viewer's eye weaves between bundles of vegetables, a donkey, cab, and the crowds to catch a glimpse of Voltaire sitting in his splendid coach.  Although Voltaire is a diminutive figure amidst the throng, Leloir perfectly captures the unique effect of the man's fame; Voltaire was nearly as well known for his vanity and sartorial obsessions as for his writing.  As with any celebrity, Voltaire was recognized for his fine material possessions, among them a coach, gilded with fine details (some say decorated with stars), and he was rarely seen without the best clothing.  In the present work Leloir portrays him wearing a jaunty pink and blue coat and fine silk shirt, its ruffled collar framing the writer's notable nose, its significant profile pointing toward his characteristically warm smile.
The theatricality of Leloir's work infused with a myriad of visual props, from the wet interior of a sliced pumpkin for sale to the curls of an aristocrat's powdered wig, reveals the artist's lifelong interests in the fine, literary, and dramatic arts, particularly costume design and staging.  In addition to his painting, Leloir was a playwright and illustrator of texts by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean-Baptiste Molière, Honoré de Balzac and Alexandre Dumas. His illustrations brilliantly enhanced the respective narratives with well studied, accurate period details. The culmination of Leloir's interest in costume was the 1906 publication of his Dictionnaire du Costume: et de ses accessoires des Armes et des Étoffes des origines à nos jours, which included a multitude of complex drawings revealing every nuance of eighteenth century clothing from elaborate corset laces, to the proper cut of jackets, to the varying heights of shoe heels.  Such detail made the artist's work particularly appealing to American collectors fascinated with lavish portrayals of the eighteenth century, such as William Astor, who first owned the work. From this early introduction to America, Voltaire's Last Visit to Paris was engraved and often republished along with many other Leloir illustrations. The artist became so renowned in the United States, in fact, that in 1928 director Douglas Fairbanks invited him to serve as an advisor on his film version of the Three Musketeers' adventure The Iron Mask co-starring Mary Pickford.  Leloir's extensive knowledge was the basis of all his work and it came to be accepted as an authentic illustration of the intellect, intrigue, glamour, and unique cultural appeal of a long-gone era.