Denis-Pierre-Jean Papillon de la Ferté

Denis-Pierre-Jean Papillon de la Ferté (Châlons-en-Champagne 17 February 1727 — Paris 7 July 1794) was an amateur draughtsman, designer and print collector; an art critique and connoisseur.

[1] As the administrator (an Intendant and from 1763 the sole Intendant) of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, the organization in the royal household (the Maison du Roi) he was responsible for the logistical aspects of his the travels, maintenance of the palaces, design and presentation of fêtes and ceremonies, fireworks, balls, ballets, weddings and funerals, furniture, jewelry at the court of France, beginning with his appointment in 1756.

His Journal, published in 1887,[3] gives an insight not only into the workings of the Menus-Plaisirs, but the Comédie française and the Comédie-Italienne, and also the music at court and the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, and the Intendant 's role, reforming, rationalizing and redefining the official structure, encouraging artists of every kind, the model of the modern arts administrator.

[7] Papillon de la Ferté's suggestion, however, met with opposition from the rest of the committee and remained a dead letter.

In 1790 he joined the garde nationale,[10] notwithstanding he became a victim of the Reign of Terror; his aristocratic background made him a target, and he was arrested, imprisoned in the palais Luxembourg and accused of being an enemy of the people by Fouquier-Tinville.