The Flight en montgolfière of Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes over Paris, November 1783

Set into its original brown Moroccan leather case of rectangular form, the lid with an embossed gilt border of lions, butterflies and floral garlands surrounding a central trophy of scientific instruments with the text PILATRE DE ROZIER ET D'ARLANDES; AV DESSVS SAINT GERMAIN 1783, the interior of the lid inscribed in ink Pilastre de Rozier repondit au Roy: Eh, quoi!  De vils criminels envient les premiers la gloire de s'élever dans l'air?  Non, non, cela ne fera point.  Et Madame la Duchesse de Polignac était du même avis.  Le 28 novembre 1783. The bottom lid under the gouache inscribed in ink Voyage de Monsieur le marquis d'Arlandes & de monsieur P. de Rozier and the underside of the framed gouache Le parc magnifique de Saint Germain

A large and decorative subject. Crack to miniature - 1.5cm long - starting from the woman's pink skirt in centre, but otherwise in good condition. Very fine painting. The paper back has been consolidated and varnished. One hole pierced through the back and case in order to secure the object. Nice, original paper and leather case with some restoration and consolidation to paper interior.
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Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (1754-1785) is regarded as an important pioneer of aviation, and with his colleague François-Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes (1742-1809) he effected the first manned hot-air balloon flight over Paris on 21 November 1783.  Born in Metz, Pilâtre trained in chemistry and physics and taught at the Academy of Rheims before being named Intendant in 1781 of the natural history cabinet of the Comte de Provence, younger brother of King Louis XVI and future King Louis XVIII. 
In 1783 he became an associate of the Montgolfier brothers, inventors of the hot air balloon and origin of the French word for their invention, montgolfière.  On 19 September of that year a balloon was flown for the first time with living animals - a sheep, duck and cockerel - from the courtyard of the château de Versailles, with the King and Marie-Antoinette present.  The flight lasted eight minutes and traveled approximately three kilometers.  In October experimental ascents with humans - first Etienne Montgolfier and then Pilâtre de Rozier - were made in the courtyard of the Réveillon wallpaper factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris, but with the balloon tethered for safety.
An manned and free flight was planned for November, and the inscription on the inside of the case lid refers to the reaction of the King, who advocated sending criminals up in the first instance due to safety fears.  Pilâtre is recorded as responding that it was unacceptable to bestow upon 'vile criminals' the glory of being the first humans to fly in the air, a position supported by the Duchesse de Polignac (1749-1793), a close friend of Marie-Antoinette and influential courtier.  The King consequently authorised Pilâtre to attempt the flight, accompanied by a noble army officer, the Marquis d'Arlandes.  On the afternoon of 21 November in the presence of the Dauphin, the two set off from the grounds of the (now destroyed) Château de la Muette in the Bois de Boulogne to the west of Paris, and traveled for approximately 25 minutes in a southeasterly direction, landing 9 km away at the Butte aux Cailles outside the city walls (now in the 13th arrondissement).
The event was widely reported and created a sensation, inspiring the production of numerous engraved reproductions of the scene that extended to all areas of the decorative arts including ceramics, miniatures, snuff boxes and fans, and even balloon-form objects deemed à la montgolfière, such as bracket clocks and chair backs.

Pilâtre de Rozier's celebrity further increased with two more balloon flights in 1784, which encouraged him to undertake an even greater challenge: a flight across the English Channel.  On 15 June 1785 he set off from Boulogne with Pierre Romain, but the attempt ended in tragedy, with the balloon deflating at high altitude and crashing near Wimereux, killing both passengers instantly, and conferring Pilâtre the additional status of the first official fatality in aviation history.
The subject of the present gouache is curious in that it places the flight of Pilâtre and d'Arlandes 'above Saint-Germain', which presumably should refer to the Faubourg St-Germain on the Left Bank, between the Invalides and St Sulpice.  However, the view rendered is of a country rather than an urban location, any may intend to depict the park of the Château Saint-Germain, which lies approximately 20 kilometres to the west of Paris in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.  In the 18th century, the park, with gardens designed by Le Nôtre during the reign of Louis XIV, incorporated the medieval and early Renaissance Château Vieux, which still stands, and the late Renaissance Château Neuf, where Louis XIV was born in 1638 and used as a royal residence until the completion of Versailles, after which it fell into disrepair.  In 1777 Louis XVI gave the Château Neuf to his second brother, the Comte d'Artois (later King Charles X), who planned to tear down the structure and replace it with a new residence.  In the end the project never came to fruition, and it was sold and demolished during the Revolution, whereas the Château Vieux was restored and transformed into a museum in the 19th century under Napoleon III.

Coincidentally, the adjacent forest of Saint-Germain does also have a small 18th-century hunting pavilion called La Muette, constructed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel on the site of an earlier small château built for François Ier.  It is possible that the artist of the gouache had either misinterpreted a news report or based the view on an inaccurate account of the flight, a hypothesis also supported by the inscription on the interior of the case's lid that erroneously gives the date of 28th November rather than the 21st.  Alternatively, the artist may simply have chosen to interpret the event freely or had a specific reason for setting the famous flight over Saint-Germain, raising the possibility that the gouache was destined for the Comte d'Artois himself or someone in his circle.