HELIER COSSON - Portrait of Count Charles de Gramont as a Ve - Lot 41

HELIER COSSON - Portrait of Count Charles de Gramont as a Veneur HELIER COSSON (1897-1976) Portrait of Count Charles de Gramont (1911-1976), as a veneur Oil on canvas 110 x 125 cm. Signed lower left The fourth child of Armand de Gramont (1879-1962), 12ᵉ Duc de Gramont, and Élaine Greffulhe (1882-1958), the Count was born in the family's private mansion on avenue Henri Martin (16th arrondissement). Our portrait recalls his passion for venery, which places him in the direct spiritual heritage of his great-grandfather Charles Greffulhe (1814-1888), co-founder of the Bois-Boudran crew in 1840. Until 1848, he and his brother Henri hunted wolf, fallow deer, stag and wild boar at Bois-Boudran, in the Villefermois forest, and at various times in Rambouillet and Fontainebleau. They were wolf wardens for the Provins district and members of the Rambouillet Hunting Society. In 1840, the vautrait also hunted in the Marne, in the forêt d'Othe, led by an excellent picker named Landouiller. The 1847-1848 season yielded: 2 wolves, 20 louvards, 10 wild boars, 11 fallow deer, 2 stags. In 1848, this superb vulture was sold to the Comte de la Guiche and the Société de Rambouillet. Joseph Boutry was a stalker from 1841 to 1851. Boutry and Verjus, another staker, were to be found in Napoleon III's Vènerie impériale. From 1868, it was the Henry, vicomte de Greffulhe, who reassembled the crew, adding a second pack. He hunted deer and wild boar in Bois-Boudran and Villefermois. In 1880, he was given the wild boars of the Fontainebleau forest. With wild boar numbers dwindling, he was hunting only stags when he gave birth in 1912 (according to the Annuaire de la Vénerie from 1910 to 1914). On average, the two crews took 15 to 20 stags and 30 to 40 wild boar a year.