A Gift from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to George Simon Harcourt: Etchings and Proofs of the Illustrations to His Works

A Gift fromJean-Jacques Rousseau to George Simon Harcourt: Etchings and Proofs of the Illustrations to His Works Ann-Marie Thornton This article offers a history and description ofa portfolio containing engravings which once constitutedJean-Jacques Rousseau's personal collection ofillustrations to his works and which he offered to George Simon Harcourt, Viscount Nuneham (1736-1809) during his stay in England, from 11 January 1766 to 21 May 1767. The portfolio was inventoried and exhibited for the first time by the present author on 28 October 1995 at the Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, with the kind permission of its owner, the Honourable Mrs Gascoigne, née Harcourt.1 This study will trace the circumstances under which the engravings came into the possession of the Harcourt family, account for their particular arrangement in the portfolio, and offer a description of each plate. It will also seek to determine how and when Rousseau originally acquired the illustrations, and which engravings he valued most highly. Rousseau's ownership of a given proof is of particular interest in the light of comments made in his correspondence, a rereading of which will indicate the extent to which this hitherto unknown collection of engravings offers pre1 The exhibition, entitled "A Portfolio of Rousseau Engravings in Oxfordshire, Accompanied by Illustrations to Early Editions oíJulie in Oxford Libraries," is recorded in Etudes Jean-Jacques Rousseau 8 (1996), p. 319; The Collected Writings ofRousseau, vol. 6, Julie, or The New Hêloïse, ed. and trans. Philip Stewart and Jean Vaché (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997), p. xxxi. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION, Volume 14, Numbers 2-3, April-July 2002 442EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION cious new insights into the publishing history of the illustrations to Rousseau's works. In a postscript to a letter of 14 February 1767, Rousseau offered his portfolio containing the illustrations to his works to Harcourt with the words: "Il doit y avoir parmi mes estampes un petit portefeuille contenant de bonnes épreuves de celles de tous mes écrits. Oserai-je me flatter que vous ne dédaignerez pas ce foible cadeau, et de placer ce portefeuille parmi les vôtres?"2 The gift was intended to thank Harcourt for overseeing the sale of Rousseau's collection of prints from 10 February 1767 (Leigh 5724). Rousseau clearly preferred to offer the illustrations to his works to an admirer rather than to have them sold along with his other engravings. From Rousseau's collection , Harcourt also acquired a substantial collection ofrare works by Jean-Claude Richard de St Non, and a smaller but equally rare collection of prints engraved and offered to Rousseau by Claude-Henri Watelet in December 1765.3 In 1910, Louis-Jean Courtois expressed the hope that "peut-être quelque châtelain anglais pourrait-il renseigner les rousseauistes sur le sort des livres et des estampes du maître."4 The location of the engravings offered to Harcourt has indeed remained obscure. In 1760, Harcourt's father, the first Earl Harcourt (1714-1777), moved the Harcourt family seat from Stanton Harcourt Manor to Nuneham Park, situated to the south of Oxford. Harcourt inherited the estate and the title Earl Harcourt in September 1777. His portfolios may have been housed in the library, which was transferred to the North Wing from 1781 as part of an extensive villa conversion. In 1880, Edward William Harcourt republished Rousseau's letters to Harcourt and affirmed that "the drawings, prints and etchings alluded to in the letters are still to be found in portfolios at Nuneham."5 However, neitherJacques Voisine nor Ralph A. Leigh, who catalogued George 2 Correspondance complète deJean-Jacques Rousseau, ed. R.A. Leigh, 52 vols (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1965-98), letter 5728. References are to this edition by letter number. 3 George Simon Harcourt to Rousseau: 9, 10, or 11 March 1767 (Leigh 5770);January 1768 (Leigh 6215). 4 Louis-Jean Courtois, Le Séjour deJ-J. Rousseau en Angleterre (1766—1767): lettres et documents inédits, 2 parts (Geneva:Jullien, 1910), p. 81. 5 Harcourt Papers, ed. Edward William Harcourt (Oxford: James Parker, 1876-1905), 11:4. The letters reproduced on pp. 4-17 of the Harcourt Papers correspond to Leigh...