Auguste Guillaumot et la redécouverte du château de Marly

Auguste Guillaumot (1815–1892) was an architectural draughtsman and engraver who contributed to the rediscovery of the Château de Marly. Louis XIV’s former royal place, sold during the Revolution and then destroyed in the early nineteenth century, had become a deserted park. A student of Augustin-François Lemaître, Guillamot belonged to a family of engravers and painters. He had a long academic career in the entourage of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Between 1842 and 1891 he regularly showed at the Salon des Artistes, winning numerous prizes. However most of his career was dedicated to the Château de Marly, realizing views from nature, copies of archival documents and reconstructions, before finally settling in the village of Marly. In 1857 he published a monograph on the Château de Marly and exhibited a view of Marly’s watering place; a short while later the Historical Monuments committee classified the vestiges. This first study was taken up and completed in a large illustrated book, which was published in 1865 by the art and architecture publisher, Auguste Morel. A second edition, featuring new engravings, was published in 1876, then a third around 1910, ensuring the work’s wide dissemination. Guillaumot complemented his archival research by several archaeological excavations in the park and also made the first survey of the remains of the royal pavilion. He thus preceded the first restorations, conservation work and excavations in the early twentieth century