Vues pittoresques et perspectives des salles du musée des monuments françois ... gravées au burin, en vingt estampes, par MM. Réville et Lavallée, d'après les dessins de M. Vauzelle, avec un texte explicatif par B. de Roquefort .. First edition.

Paris: P. Didot l'Aîné, 1816. Large folio. 47 x 64 cm. [6],38, 21 plates with tissue guards. New goatskin and marbled boards by the Russian-American artisan binder Sasha Mosalov....The musée des monuments françois was created during the revolution by Doyen as a warehouse to the sculptures and tombs in danger of being destroyed by the French revolutionaries. In 1791 Doyen left Paris for Russia and the warehouse was put in charge of his assistant Alexandre Lenoir. The collection, housed in the Abbey of the Petits-Augustin, was lated transformed by Lenoir to a Museum of French art and history. Lenoir organized the museum by each room being devoted to a century....After the return of the Bourbon family period the sculpture and tombs were returned to their original location. In a last attempt to save his Museum, Lenoir wrote a book on the museum with views of the Rooms: Vues pittoresques et Perspectives des salles du musée des monuments françois. The illustrations were done by Vauzelle. This view is described in the book as '..les figures d'aptres, sculptes en pierre et de grandeur naturelle, proviennent de la Sainte-Chapelle, elles sont trs remarquables sous les doubles rapports de l'art et du costume..on admire la navet de leur expression et le simplicité de leur exécution'......The museum was to prove very influential in the evolution of French Art at the beginning of the 19th Century. Lenoir's organization of the museum, his choice of works of art and their display, evoked for many artists a romantic feeling of the Middle-Ages, following the fashion for Troubadour painting. Many artists visited the museum to find inspiration for their costumes and monuments. Lenoir himself created some 'Middle-Age' monuments from disparate fragments, such as the tomb of Helose and Ablard......British Museum Description:"Vues Pittoresques et Perspectives des Salles du Musée des Monuments François, et des Principaux Ouvrages d'Architecture, de Sculpture et de Peinture sur Verre qu'elles renferment; Gravées au Burin, en Vingt Estampes, par MM. Réville et Lavallée, d'après les Dessins de M. Vauzelle: avec un Texte Explicatif par B. de Roquefort." (Paris, P. Didot) 1816; containing 19 plates showing exterior and interior views of the Musée des monuments français in the convent of the Petits Augustins, with an engraved ground plan, and 2 vignettes printed with the letterpress....Alexandre Lenoir's "Musée des Monuments français" closed in 1816, the date of this publication. An exhibition on the subject was held at the Louvre in 2016 ("Un musée révolutionaire: Le musée des Monuments français d'Alexandre Lenoir").....OCLC Number 939432157:Subjects: On Alexandre Lenoir and the Musée des Monumens Français in the Petits-Augustins see the Notes to J.E. Biet's Souvenirs du Musée des Monumens Français (1821-1826; No. 273) and to the catalogues of the museum compiled by Lenoir himself (Nos 1822-1825). The present work was among the earliest to depict the display of objects in a public museum, and was an influence on many later museum guides and promotional handbooks, including those to Sir John Soane's Museum (see Nos 429, 3089 and 3096)Signature: 2:̲ [OCLCbrCB]-3[OCLCbrCB]¹ 1-19¹ 20[SN]1[SF]. [23 leaves] $1 signedAn engraved tail-piece composition of monuments, with an inscription, signed 'Debray del', appears on page 38. There is also an engraved vignette on the title.page.