Auguste François
Auguste François Collections in
museums.
Traces
of Auguste François are preserved in many different places.
-
The Musée Gaumont in
Neuilly-sur-Seine holds a collection of recently acquired photos of China on
positive stereo plates.
-
The Guébriant family archives
include Auguste François’s correspondence with several missionaries in China,
particularly with P. Jean de Guébriant who became head of the Paris Foreign
Missions Society (a Roman Catholic Missionary organisation).
-
The Paris Foreign Missions Society
also has a few photographs taken by the Consul in Yunnan.
- In
the Cinémathèque Française in Paris
(holder of a vast collection of film and film-related archives and objects),
there is a letter sent from China by the Consul in 1898 to Léon Gaumont, the
founder of the institution.
-
In the Archives of the Sarthe Department,
there is a collection of letters concerning Yunnan that Auguste François wrote
to Paul d’Estournelles de Constant before the latter received the Nobel Peace
Prize.
During
his missions, A. François sent objects to museums himself. Various museums and
libraries, such as that of the Musée
Guimet or the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, now have documents, photos or maps that he sent either to the
Ministry with his official reports, or to his friends.
Some
objects that were originally in the collections of the Louvre or the Musée
Guimet are now housed in provincial museums (Angers,
La Rochelle).
The
main part of the collections brought back by Auguste François
were donated to the French national museums by his wife. This meant that
a coherent collection of clothes, objects, weapons and descriptive narratives,
as well as photos and films placing these in context, was in fact scattered
between various different institutions.
The
clothes, games, tools and musical instruments are now in the Musée du Quai Branly, while the photos, letters
and maps are at the Musée Guimet, and the
ceramics in Luneville. As for the weapons,
they are divided between Saint-Etienne, Crépy-en-Valois and the Musée du Quai Branly.
Within each museum, these collections are often separated between different
departments – music, archives, photography, etc. – and classified differently.
Only
a few objects are on public display.
Archives: In particular, minutes of the Consul’s official correspondence
between 1899 and 1904.
Large number of photographs: (albums, negative glass plates and prints)
concerning the population, monuments, navigation and landscapes of Southern
China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan) but also Vietnam.
(Certain photos can be seen on the website of the Réunion
des Musées nationaux).
Maps, route descriptions, river layouts
drawn up by A. François.
Chinese documents, rubbings of stele
inscriptions.
Objects: Chinese bronze drum, emblems of
Annamite processions, etc.
The Musée Guimet also holds the archives of
Jean-Joseph BEAUVAIS, a specialist in Chinese affairs who was a colleague and
friend of Auguste François in Guangxi and then in Yunnan between 1896 and 1904.
Beauvais who then became Consul remained in post in China until 1923.
The Musée Guimet is considering publishing
the complete collection of A. François’s photos in DVD form.
More than 500 items in this museum’s
catalogue come from Auguste François’s collections, previously held in the
Musée de l’Homme. They include clothes, shoes, hats, finery, fans, parasols,
pipes, card games, dice, flea traps, weapons, musical instruments, tools, etc.
mainly from China or Vietnam. There is, however, also a saddle and harnesses
from Paraguay.
The catalogue of the iconography is still
incomplete. It includes some photographs taken in China by Auguste François and
also photographs that he took of the Cardinal de Richelieu’s skull when it was
exhumed from the Sorbonne Chapel in 1895. The catalogue and photographs can be
consulted online.
Only a few of A. François’s objects are
displayed in the permanent exhibitions. However, in the library reading room
visitors can consult a very complete and detailed database of photographs from
the collections. This is also available on the museum’s website.
This museum holds firearms and bladed weapons: Chinese guns taken from
the Tonkin Black Flag Army; Samurai armour; Japanese sabres; sabres and
cutlasses used by the Mandarins and the Chinese or Annamite executioners;
pikes, spears and halberds from the regular Chinese army; muskets; crossbows
from the Yunnan minority groups, etc.
As well as a few Chinese bronzes, this museum received a set of masks
and tsubas (sabre guards) from Japan.
This museum holds bows, arrows and quivers, from Japan, China, Vietnam
and Paraguay.
This museum has a set of ceramics
for daily use typical of Yunnan products.
The museum is currently being
refurbished following a fire in the Château and it is closed to the public.
This museum displays a
remarkable sculpted wooden panel (300 x 100 cm) from Tonkin.
In 1887, Auguste François had saved
it from destruction and sent it to the Louvre.
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Updated: 4th October 2012
Musée des arts et civilisations asiatiques
Guimet - Museum of Asian art
and civilisation