• Louis Brion de la Tour, (circa 1743 – 1803) was an 18th-century French geographer and demographer.

Biography

His family may have come from Bordeaux, having found asylum in Alsace when the Edict of Nantes was revoked by the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1685.^[1]

Generally, authors were careful to differentiate him from the engraver Antoine Brion from Reims, born in 1739. He was perhaps his son.^[2]

His official title was « Ingénieur Géographe du Roi » ("King's Engineer Geographer"). Although he was a prolific geographer, very little is known of his life or his career. His life passed in scientific work. However what is known is that an important part of his work was done in collaboration with Louis Charles Desnos (circa 1750–1790),^[3] bookseller and geographical engineer for globes and spheres of His Danish Majesty. Between 1762 and 1785, he participated in the development of the Indicateur fidèle ou guide des voyageurs, qui enseigne toutes les routes royales.^[4]

In 1795, he obtained a pension of the National Assembly.^[5][6]

These cards cost 25 sols (1786)^[7]

• His son Louis Brion de la Tour^[8] (1763–1823),^[9] a student of Jean-Bernard Restout, was a map and Revolution documents engraver, and was also an occasional portraitist of oil paintings. It is often difficult to attribute what is the work of the father or the son. 29 pluviôse an II (27 February 1794), the Journal de la Montagne announced a picture engraved by Brion, representing the assassination of Marat.^[10] Brion de la Tour son was the author of portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette and the series of the necklace.^[2]