Il trattato di Simon Horsin-Déon (1851) e il restauro dei dipinti in Francia alla metà dell'Ottocento

Abstract. Simon Horsin-Déon (1812-1882), art historian, painter,picture expert and dealer was one of the winners of the competition for restorers held by the Louvre in 1848 and was also the first Frenchman to publish a treatise on restoration entitled De la conservation et de la restauration des tableaux (1851), which proved more popular abroad than in his home country. Although he was a qualified restaurateur des Musées imperiaux (“restorer for imperial museums”), Horsin-Déon was seldom employed by the Louvre, probably because of the criticism that he had made, in his treatise and other writings, of the working method of Frédéric Villot, curator of paintings at the Louvre. Nevertheless, in 1860,when the majority of French experts and journalists attacked Villot for the way in which the museum’s paintings had been cleaned,Horsin-Déon sided with him, even if he did so above all to defend restoration and restorers. His numerous publications about collecting, buying and selling paintings are very useful when attempting to reconstruct the history of the art market in France around the mid-19th century.