Invitation semi-manuscrite pour une réception chez les indiens Osages

Exceptional printed invitation with several manuscript additions in black ink, notably the date and the names of the illustrious recipients: "Madame Récamier, par Monsieur de Chateaubriand." (Madame Récamier, through Monsieur de Chateaubriand)

Usual traces of folding, some lack of paper to left margin, paper slightly creased at lower right, minor spotting.

The leaf bears a signature, possibly painter Charles Thévenin's, suggesting he may have overseen the issuing of invitations.

François-René de Chateaubriand invited the celebrated woman of letters Juliette Récamier to a reception held in honour of a group of Osages, members of the Native American tribe bearing the same name and originating from the regions bordering present-day New Mexico. In September 1827, the two lovers were celebrating the tenth anniversary of their relationship—at once friendly, romantic, and intellectual. Their encounter, however, dated much earlier than 1817: it took place in 1801, shortly after the publication of the writer’s first novel, Atala ou les Amours de deux sauvages dans le désert. In his Mémoires d’outre-tombe, Chateaubriand would recall that first emotion:

"It was Christian de Lamoignon who introduced me to Madame Recamier [...] Coming from my forests and my obscurity, I was still extremely shy; I scarcely dared raise my eyes to a woman surrounded by admirers, and placed so far above me by her beauty and her fame.

One morning, about a month later, I was at Madame de Stael's [...] suddenly Madame Recamier entered wearing a white dress; she sat down in the center of a blue silk sofa; Madame de Stael remained standing and continued her conversation, in a very lively manner and speaking quite eloquently; I scarcely replied, my eyes fixed on Madame Recamier. I asked myself whether I was viewing a picture of ingenuousness or voluptuousness. I had never imagined anything to equal her and I was more discouraged than ever; my roused admiration turned to annoyance with myself. I think I begged Heaven to age this angel, to reduce her divinity a little, to set less distance between us. When I dreamed of my Sylph, I endowed myself with all the perfections to please her; when I thought of Madame Recamier I lessened her charms to bring her closer to me: it was clear I loved the reality more than the dream. Madame Recamier left and I did not see her again for twelve years. Twelve years! What hostile power culls and wastes our days like this, lavishing them, ironically, on all the indifferent relationships called attachments, on all the wretched things known as joys!"

François-René de Chateaubriand, the “savage” of the New World, fell in love with the salonnière Juliette Récamier. In 1827, as this invitation attests, both the writer’s passions-for Juliette and for the theme of the “savage”-remained entirely intact. Like all of Paris at the time, he wished to meet the Osages, who were travelling through nineteenth-century Europe. The six members of this Native American tribe, from lands near present-day New Mexico, landed at Le Havre on 27 July 1827. They very quickly became the centre of attention. Several receptions awaited them, notably at the Château de la Rivière-Bourdet, at the invitation of the Duchess of Fitz-James, and later in the presence of King Charles X at the Château de Saint-Cloud. When they entered the capital on 13 August 1827, excitement reached its peak.

The imaginary surrounding the Osages was greatly inspired by literary works such as Atala, Les Natchez, and Voyage en Amérique, the latter published in the very year of the Osages’ arrival in France. It is therefore hardly surprising that the author of so many “American” works should have been invited to meet them. It seems, however, that the invitation reached him through another channel: the agent accompanying the Osages was none other than Colonel David Delaunay, Chateaubriand’s childhood friend.

An exceptional invitation uniting on a single leaf of paper the two celebrated lovers, Chateaubriand and Récamier, together with the Osages who travelled across France in 1827.