Antoine Crozat
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Antoine Crozat, marquis du Châtel (ca. 1655 – June 7, 1738), French founder of an immense fortune, was the first private proprietary owner of French Louisiana from 1712 to 1717.
Born in Toulouse, France the sons of peasants, he and his brother Pierre rose from obscurity to become two of the wealthiest merchants of France. By lending money to the government Antoine was ennobled as the marquis du Châtel, a noble title that he transmitted to his elder son Louis-François. He became a financial counsellor to Louis XIV. He invested in the Guinea Company and the Asiento Company, two lucrative overseas franchises. The king eventually offered him a 15‑year trade monopoly inImage:Madame Crozat.jpg
Portrait of Mme Crozat (1670-1742) by Joseph Aved (exhibited at the Salon of 1741)
Montpellier, Musée Fabre
Montpellier, Musée Fabre
He married Marguerite Legendre. They had four children:
- Marie Anne married the comte d'Évreux, Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, son of Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne and Marie Anne Mancini.
- Louis François, marquis du Châtel
- Joseph Antoine, marquis de Thugny
- Louis Antoine, baron de Thiers, whose gallery of paintings inherited from his uncle Pierre Crozat, (called "Crozat le Pauvre" to distinguish him from his even richer brother Antoine), was purchased after his death for the collection of Catherine II of Russia, through Denis Diderot; the Crozat paintings now hang in the Hermitage Museum,.
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