Hygin-Auguste Cavé

Hygin-Edmond-Ludovic-Auguste Cavé (8 October 1796 – 30 March 1852) was a French attorney, journalist, and government official, as well as an occasional playwright and librettist, who often collaborated with Adolphe Dittmer under the pseudonym Jacques François de Fongeray. He is also sometimes referred to as Edmond Cavé. He is perhaps best known as the subject of a portrait by the French artist Ingres, which is on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Biography According to information in the records of the Légion d'Honneur, he was born Ygin-Auguste Cavé in Doudeville, Seine-Maritime, to Thomas-Romain Cavé, a merchant wholesaler, and Françoise-Louise Derotté Guilbert. He first worked as an attorney in Rouen. They also co-wrote several vaudeville sketches. And from 28 January to 17 October 1838 Cavé served as the acting Royal Commissioner for the Comédie-Française. Through his wife, Cavé became acquainted with Boulanger's former teacher Ingres, as well as Delacroix and Gigoux. In 1844 he commissioned Ingres to paint his portrait, which was apparently intended to be a companion piece to Ingres's earlier portrait of Mme Cavé.

His wife's son from her first marriage was Marie-Henry-Albert Boulanger-Cavé (born 1830 in Rome, died 1910), who became a theatre supervisor in the Ministry of the Interior during the Second Empire.

Honors Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (1 May 1831) Officier of the Legion of Honor (12 December 1844)