Doesn’t the name Rue Louis Marteau sound distinguished? It is a street located in Stains France. The Rue Louis Marteau may seem like any other street. But it carries a name with a story.
The street is named after Louis-François Marteau. He was also known as Ludwik Marteau. Marteau was a French-born painter. He made his mark in Poland.
Born in Paris around 1715 Louis’s father worked as a carpenter. He worked at the Palace of Versailles. Fate intervened through his aunt. She was married to Louis de Silvestre a Polish court painter. Silvestre arranged a position for young Louis in Poland.
In 1752 Marteau journeyed to Poland. He first stopped at the court of Jan Klemens Branicki in Białystok. There he painted portraits of the hetman’s family. Soon after King August III appointed him as a court painter in Warsaw.
Marteau became “The King’s Painter” from 1765 to 1795. He earned a salary plus payments for each painting. He even had a monopoly. He painted portraits of guests at the King’s Thursday Dinners.
Marteau’s portraits featured many important 18th-century Poles. These included Stanisław Konarski and Ignacy Krasicki. Others were Andrzej Mokronowski and Hugo Kołłątaj.
Marteau did not always sign his paintings. This makes it hard to know which paintings are his. Many of his portraits were moved to Saint Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas I ordered this after the November Uprising in 1831. Sadly they were burned three years later. This was to destroy Polish cultural records.
Interestingly a medalist named François Joseph Marteau created an elegantly resonant medal of Louis XV’s reign. Edme Bouchardon provided the design for the medal’s reverse.
Today the Rue Louis Marteau in Stains is a reminder. It reminds us of a talented artist. He traveled far from his Parisian home. He became a celebrated painter in a foreign court. The street immortalizes his name. It connects a small town in France to a story of art. It speaks of royal courts and cultural heritage.