Introduction
Joseph Milsand (1817–86), French Critic, Philosopher, Protestant theologian, and the great friend of Robert Browning’s middle and late years, was born 1817 in Dijon, France. He was the eldest of two children, both sons, of Jean Joseph Milsand, a pharmacist, and his wife Claire Hélène (née Gillotte).
Milsand’s great-great-grandfather was a silversmith in Chalon-sur Saône. At some point one of his sons, Jean Baptiste, went to Dijon where he studied to become an apothecary, taking his last examination in 1731. One of his sons, Louis Antoine, entered the same profession, as did the latter’s eldest son, the philosopher’s father. But Joseph did not follow in his father’s footsteps (nor did his younger brother Philibert).
The intelligence and talent that led Milsand down a more artistic path is well documented. At the age of eleven, he began his formal education at the local lycée (then known as the Collége Royal), a six-year school where he excelled in Greek, Latin, history, philosophy, and rhetoric, winning many firsts for his compositions in these subjects. He graduated bachelor of letters in August 1834. From November 1835 through January he attended lectures at the Faculté de Droit in Paris, the law school of the time. But there is no evidence that he pursued a legal career thereafter. He hoped, rather, to become an artist and to that end enrolled in the École des Beaux Arts in Dijon around 1836. As a student there, he won a prize in painting that enabled him to travel to Italy at the end of 1838 for a year of study. He spent most of his time in the major centres of art: Florence, Venice, and especially Rome. Milsand’s career as a painter never developed. He had to discontinue his studies, he told a prospective employer, because of “the weakness of my sight.”
In 2024 a notebook of drawings, in red morocco binding, belonging to Milsand appeared in a general sale in France. Measuring 5-3/4 x 8-1/2 ins., it contains, besides notes, many pencil sketches, washes, and watercolors, which consist of portraits, caricatures, military uniforms and landscapes. Two drawings are signed “Milsand”; some are signed “JM.” The notebook covers the period 1830–1839. A number of the images are from Milsand’s visit to Rome during his year of study in Italy.
The notebook was subsequently acquired from a dealer by Wedgestone Press. The images are reproduced here by permission.
