The Count and Countess of Harcourt
Henri-Claude d’Harcourt was the sixth son of Henri, Duke of Harcourt, Marshal of France, who passed away in 1718. A count and lieutenant-general of the king’s armies, his career was conducted in the background. Upon his death in 1769, his widow, Marie-Magdeleine Thibert des Martrais, Countess of Chiverny, wished to honor him. Her wealth allowed her to commission a renowned artist: the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.
A Conjugal Reunion
The theme of this composition, known as the “conjugal reunion,” is defined in the contract dated July 1, 1771, which the sculptor signed with the Countess of Harcourt:
At one end of the sarcophagus will be the guardian angel of the said Lord Count of Harcourt who, seeing the said Lady Countess of Harcourt approaching, will lift the stone of the tomb with one hand and hold the torch of Hymen with the other; Mr. the Count, who, after appearing to come back to life for a moment by the warmth of his torch, will free himself from his shroud and extend his languishing arms to his wife… Behind Mr. the Count will be Death holding a hourglass to show Mrs. the Countess that her time has come. Mrs. the Countess, at the foot of the sarcophagus, will express through her posture the impatience she has to reunite with her husband; at the sight of this reunion, the guardian angel will extinguish the torch of Hymen.
The Work of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
This white marble monument is the work of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785). An academician in 1744, protected by Madame de Pompadour since 1750, sculptor for the king, and friend of Voltaire and Diderot, for whom he created portraits, Pigalle was highly sought after by the nobility when he created this monument in 1776. Pigalle had previously worked on other funerary monuments and religious commissions at Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Saint-Sulpice.
For this monument, the sculptor proposed an allegory of conjugal fidelity. His style is characterized by a great realism. Imbued with the spirit of the Enlightenment and the Encyclopedia, he drew on new observations of the human body. He did not hesitate to depict the body emaciated by death while adding expressions of the human soul.
During the Revolution, the mausoleum was transferred to the Petits-Augustins depot (later the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris). In 1820, the sculptor Louis-Pierre Deseine restored it to its place in the cathedral at the expense of the Harcourt-Beuvron family.
The Harcourt Chapel
Originally, this chapel was under the patronage of Saint Peter and Saint Stephen. By deliberation and chapter act dated March 9, 1746, the Chapter of Notre-Dame granted it to Abbé Louis-Abraham d’Harcourt-Beuvron to serve as his and his family’s burial place. He was then a canon of Notre-Dame, vicar general of the archbishopric, and dean of the chapter. He arranged this chapel at his own expense and was buried there in 1750. His descendants, including Henry-Claude and his wife, were subsequently buried there.
Previously, a brightly colored stained glass window depicted a celestial court and numerous high dignitaries of the Church. The stained glass was destroyed in 1774 at Pigalle’s request and replaced with white glass to provide true daylight to the mausoleum of the late Count of Harcourt. The entire decor disappeared during the Revolutionary period. The current mural paintings, restored in the late 1990s, were created based on drawings by Viollet-le-Duc. The Harcourt family monogram was chosen to illustrate the wall supporting the mausoleum. Called the Harcourt Chapel, it is today under the patronage of Saint William.
