Nineteenth-century Louisiana.(Brief Article)

It takes a giant leap of faith to believe that the same young Frenchman who created dozens of enchanting and minutely rendered watercolors of Louisiana buildings initally came to the United States to hunt buffalo, but so the family tradition goes. True or not, we do know that by 1851 Marie Adrien Persac was in Baton Rouge, where he married Marie Odile Daigre, although family lore relates that he was at that time cultivating apples in Jefferson County, Indiana. In the 1850s Persac, his wife, and their three sons were living on Bayou Manchac, where he worked as a cartographer and civil engineer. In 1856, in partnership with William G. Vail, he opened "Daguerrean Rooms," as they were called in an advertisement in the Baton Rouge Daily Advocate, which were decorated with "many charming views from the pencil and brush of Mr. Persac, who ranks high as an artist" The photography business was short lived, although Persac tried it briefly again after he moved to New Orleans sometime after 1857. There he painted shimmering watercolors of both the grand Louisiana plantation houses in their rural settings and the less ambitious dwellings that lined the streets of New Orleans. He also worked as an architect and civil engineer, although we know almost nothing about these endeavors.

An exhibition devoted to the artistic output of this fascinating artist is on view at the Historic New Orleans Collection through April 14. Entitled Marie Adrien Persac, Lousiana Artist, the show includes more than sixty-five examples of his work, many of which depict buildings that have fallen to the wrecker's ball or have been destroyed by fire. In New Orleans Persac (sometimes with the assistance of collaborators) added to his income by providing the ...