https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=%C3%89tienne_de_SilhouetteÉtienne de Silhouette - Revision history2026-06-08T14:18:07ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.44.2https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=%C3%89tienne_de_Silhouette&diff=251874&oldid=previmported>Johnpacklambert at 22:15, 18 November 20252025-11-18T22:15:09Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|French politician (1709–1767)}}<br />
{{Infobox officeholder<br />
| name = Étienne de Silhouette<br />
| image = <br />
| caption =<br />
| office = [[Controller-General of Finances|Controller-General of Finances of France]]<br />
| monarch = [[Louis XV]]<br />
| term_start = 4 March 1759<br />
| term_end = 21 November 1759<br />
| predecessor = [[Jean de Boullonges]]<br />
| successor = [[Henri Bertin]]<br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1709|7|5|df=y}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Limoges]], [[Limousin (province)]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]<br />
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1767|1|20|1709|7|5|df=y}}<br />
| death_place = [[Bry-sur-Marne]], France<br />
}}<br />
[[File:Roundel of SMOM.svg|thumb|105px|Emblem of the Knights of Malta]]<br />
'''Étienne de Silhouette''' (5 July 1709 – 20 January 1767) was a [[French people|French]] [[Ancien Régime]] [[Controller-General of Finances]] under [[Louis XV]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=VOUS CHERCHEZ LA TOMBE, LA SÉPULTURE DE LOUIS XV ou D'UNE PERSONNALITÉ LIÉE A SON RÈGNE - Tombes Sépultures dans les cimetières et autres lieux |url=http://www.tombes-sepultures.com/crbst_154.html |access-date=2025-11-12 |website=www.tombes-sepultures.com}}</ref><br />
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==Life==<br />
Sometimes said to be akin to the next [[Niccolò Machiavelli]], he was born at [[Limoges]] where his father Chevalier Arnaud de Silhouette, of [[Biarritz]] or '''''de Zulueta''''' (in [[Standard Basque|Basque]]), had been posted as a Bourbon administrator.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Les chevaliers de Malte |url=http://www.museereattu.arles.fr/les-chevaliers-de-malte.html |access-date=2025-11-12 |website=www.museereattu.arles.fr}}</ref><br />
De Silhouette studied finance and economics assiduously and spent a year in London learning about the [[economy of Britain]].<br />
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He translated into French several works by [[Alexander Pope]], [[Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke|Henry Bolingbroke]], [[William Warburton]]'s ''The Alliance between Church and State'', (1736) as ''Dissertations sur l'Union de la Religion, de la Morale, et de la Politique'' (1742) and [[Baltasar Gracián]]'s ''El político''. The [[Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon|Prince of Condé]]'s party later used his translations from English to criticize him, but [[Madame de Pompadour]]'s support and vision saw him awarded with the position of Controller-General on 4 March 1759; this was one of the most extensive administrative positions in the Ancien Régime, albeit a very unstable one. His task was to curb France's spiralling deficit and strengthen the finances for the [[Seven Years' War]] against Britain (1754–1763). Public opinion preferred his 72-million-[[French livre|livres]] public loan to the ''[[ferme générale]]'', an outsourced tax collection system. He managed to curtail Royal household expenditure, revised state pensions and to encourage [[free trade]] he reduced some ancient taxes whilst establishing new ones in accordance with the vision of a unified French market.<br />
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De Silhouette forecast a bleak budget for 1760: income of 286 million [[French livre|livres]] compared to expenses of 503 million livres, including at least 94 million in [[government debt|debt]] service.<ref>Le Sueur (1772). Testament politique de M. de Silhouette. s.n.], [S.l</ref> In an attempt to restore the kingdom's finances by the English method of taxing the rich and privileged (nobility and church were exempt from taxes in the [[Ancien Régime]]), de Silhouette devised the "general subvention," i.e., taxes on external signs of wealth (doors and windows, farms, luxury goods, servants, profits). On 26 October, he took the [[war economy|war measure]] of ordering the melting down of goldware and [[silver]]ware. He was criticized by the nobility including [[Voltaire]], who thought his measures, though theoretically beneficial, were not suitable for wartime and the French political situation.<br />
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On 20 November 1759, after eight months in the position, he left the court and retired to [[:fr:Château de Bry|Bry-sur-Marne]], where he set about improving the [[budget]]. After his death in 1767, his nephew and heir [[:fr:Clément de Laage|Clément de Laage]] completed his work.<br />
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==The Silhouette legacy==<br />
[[Image:JaneAustenSilhouette.png|thumb|right|upright|Silhouette of [[Jane Austen]].]]<br />
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Despite Étienne de Silhouette's short tenure as Treasury Chief, it caused him to become the subject of hostility.<ref name=Dodd>{{cite book|last=Dodd|first=Philip|title=What's in a Name?: From Joseph P. Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Items Were Named for Extraordinary People|year=2009}}</ref> His penny-pinching manner led the term ''à la Silhouette'' to be applied to things perceived as cheap or austere.<ref name=Dodd/><br />
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During this period an art form of growing popularity was a shadow profile cut from black paper. It provided a simple and inexpensive alternative for those who could not afford more decorative and expensive forms of portraiture, such as painting or sculpture. Those who considered it cheap attached the word "silhouette" to it. This art-form is still practiced and named [[silhouette]] cutting, or art, to this day.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.silhouettecutting.co.uk|title=Silhouette Sarah {{!}} Silhouette Artist, Cutter and Entertainer|website=www.silhouettecutting.co.uk|access-date=2017-02-02}}</ref><br />
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Despite his name being applied to the silhouette art form, Étienne de Silhouette ironically has no portraits in existence, not even a silhouette. Although several portraits were created depicting Silhouette, all were oil paintings destroyed during the French Revolution.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roxby |first1=Koneta |title=The Man Without A Portrait |journal=The Antiques Journal |date=August 1961 |volume=16 |issue=8 |pages=14–15}}</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[France in the Seven Years' War]]<br />
* [[List of Ambassadors of France to the United Kingdom|List of Ambassadors of France to Great Britain]]<br />
{{Portal|Biography}}<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==Sources==<br />
* [[:fr:Etienne de Silhouette|The corresponding page]] at the [[French Wikipedia]].<br />
* [http://www.institut.minefi.gouv.fr/sections/comite_pour_lhistoi/recherches_finances/les_hommes/controleurs_generaux/xviiie7211/etienne_de_silhouett?igpde_lang_redirect=1An extract] from the ''Dictionnaire des surintendants et contrôleurs généraux des finances'', [[Françoise Bayard]], [[Joël Felix]], [[Philippe Hamon]], {{ISBN|2-11-090091-1}}<br />
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{{Finance Ministers of France}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silhouette, Etienne de}}<br />
[[Category:1709 births]]<br />
[[Category:1767 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:People from Limousin (province)]]<br />
[[Category:Ancien Régime office-holders]]<br />
[[Category:French military personnel of the Seven Years' War]]<br />
[[Category:Tax reform]]<br />
[[Category:Taxation in France]]<br />
[[Category:Knights of Malta]]<br />
[[Category:Finance ministers of France]]</div>imported>Johnpacklambert