Figure 1. HT 6848a. Folding Fan. Attributed to Marie-Relin Calot. 19^th Century. The Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC.

Description:

The fan industry never caught on in America. Perhaps it was because of the long history of wealthy Americans who visited Paris and purchased fans there. Not only did they want a souvenir from their travels in France, but the quality of fans in France was much higher, which led them to desire only Parisian produced fans. For example, Mrs. Sydney Legendre, who owned Medway Plantation in South Carolina, went to Paris and brought back a fan painted by Marie Relin-Calot. Relin-Calot was a painter in Paris in the nineteenth century. In the November 14, 1876, edition of La Presse, she is listed as having won first prize for one of her ‘éventails’ or fans, awarded the sum of 500 francs. During a previous internship, I completed at the Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, I found a particular fan on which she painted a copy of François Boucher’s The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche. (Fig. 1) Although she copied Boucher’s image, she took the liberty to reverse it and designed the medallions and gold leaf that decorate the rest of the fan.

Client:

The Charleston Museum, Charleston, SC

Artist:

Marie Relin-Calot after François Boucher

Date:

19th Century