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In art history, the French term objet d’art describes an ornamental work of art, and the term objets d’art describes a range of works of art, usually small and three-dimensional, made of high-quality materials, and a finely-rendered finish that emphasises the aesthetics of the artefact. Artists create and produce objets d’art in the fields of the decorative arts and metalwork, porcelain and vitreous enamel; figurines, plaquettes, and engraved gems; ivory carvings and semi-precious hardstone carvings; tapestries, antiques, and antiquities; and books with fine bookbinding.
A bonheur du jour is a type of lady's writing desk. It was introduced in Paris by one of the interior decorators and purveyors of fashionable novelties called marchands-merciers about 1760, and speedily became intensely fashionable. The bonheur du jour is always very light and graceful, with a decorated back, since it often did not stand against the wall but was moved about the room ; its special characteristic is a raised back, which may form a little cabinet or a nest of drawers, or open shelves, which might be closed with a tambour, or may simply be fitted with a mirror. The top, often surrounded with a chased and gilded bronze gallery, serves for placing small ornaments. Beneath the writing surface there is usually a single drawer, often neatly fitted for toiletries or writing supplies. Early examples were raised on slender cabriole legs; under the influence of neoclassicism, examples made after about 1775 had straight, tapering legs.
Ormolu is the gilding technique of applying finely ground, high-carat gold–mercury amalgam to an object of bronze, and for objects finished in this way. The mercury is driven off in a kiln leaving behind a gold coating. The French refer to this technique as "bronze doré"; in English, it is known as "gilt bronze". Around 1830, legislation in France had outlawed the use of mercury for health reasons, though use continued to the 1900s.
The Empire style is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 during the Consulate and the First French Empire periods, although its life span lasted until the late-1820s. From France it spread into much of Europe and the United States.
A marchand-mercier is a French term for a type of entrepreneur working outside the guild system of craftsmen but carefully constrained by the regulations of a corporation under rules codified in 1613. The reduplicative term literally means a merchant of merchandise, but in the 18th century took the connotation of a merchant of objets d'art. Earliest references to this Corps de la Ville de Paris can be found at the close of the 16th century, but in the 18th century marchands-merciers were shopkeepers but they also played an important role in the decoration of Paris homes. In fact, they served as general contractors, designing and commissioning pieces of the most fashionable furniture, and often, in addition, worked outside of their shops as interior decorators, responsible for many aspects of a room's decor. In Paris, the guild system, in place since the late Middle Ages, prohibited craftsmen from working with any material with which they had not undergone a formal apprenticeship. Only a marchand-mercier who worked outside of the guild system, therefore, could mount Chinese porcelains with gilt-bronze handles and stands, fit the cabinetmaker's furniture with Japanese lacquer or Sèvres porcelain plaques, and supply furniture with opulent gilt-bronze mounts.
Dominique Daguerre was a Parisian marchand-mercier who was in partnership from 1772 with Simon-Philippe Poirier, an arbiter of taste and the inventor of furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques; Daguerre assumed Poirier's business at La Couronne d'Or in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1777/78. Daguerre commissioned furniture from ébénistes such as Adam Weisweiler, Martin Carlin and Claude-Charles Saunier, and menuisiers like Georges Jacob, for whom he would provide designs, for resale to his clients, in the manner of an interior decorator. A series of watercolours that Daguerre sent to Albert, Duke of Sachsen-Teschen, the brother-in-law of Marie Antoinette, who was refurnishing the castle of Laeken near Brussels, are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The Château de Louveciennes in Louveciennes, in the Yvelines département of France, is composed of the château itself, constructed at the end of the 17th century. It was then expanded and redecorated by Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Madame du Barry in the 18th century, and the music pavilion was constructed by Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1770–71). The pavilion sits in the middle of a park that was designed in the 19th century.
Roger Vandercruse Lacroix (1728–1799), often known as Roger Vandercruse, was a Parisian ébéniste whose highly refined furniture spans the rococo and the early neoclassical styles. According to Salverte, he "is counted among the great ebenistes of his generation ."
Les Arts décoratifs is a private, non-profit organization which manages museums of decorative arts located in Paris, France.
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Martin Carlin was a Parisian ébéniste (cabinet-maker), born at Freiburg, who was received as Master Ébéniste at Paris on 30 July 1766. Renowned for his "graceful furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain", Carlin fed into the luxury market of eighteenth-century decorative arts, where porcelain-fitted furniture was considered among "the most exquisite furnishings" within the transitional and neoclassical styles. Carlin's furniture was popular amongst the main great dealers, including Poirier, Daguerre, and Darnault, who sold his furniture to Marie Antoinette and many amongst the social elite class. He died on 6 March 1785.
Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751–1843) a French sculptor, was the most prominent bronzier, or producer of ornamental patinated and gilt-bronze objects and furniture mounts of the First French Empire. His fashionable neoclassical and Empire style furnishing bronzes established the highest standard in refined finish in the craft that the French called that of the fondeur-ciseleur, "founder-finisher". In his pre-Revolutionary training, Thomire appeared first as a ciseleur, in the division of duties that went into the production, for example, of a set of gilt-bronze wall-lights delivered for Marie-Antoinette's card-room, her Salon des Jeux at Compiègne: under the general supervision of Hauré, the wax and wooden model was carved by Martin, cast by Forestier, and chased by Thomire, as Pierre Verlet was able to show over fifty years ago.
Benoît Ramognino
Nicolas Heurtaut was a French wood carver and furniture designer. He designed many pieces of furniture for the French royal family and the bourgeoisie. His furniture can be found in museums in Europe and the United States.
Martin-Eloy Lignereux also spelled Martin-Eloi (1751-1809) was a French marchand-mercier or decorative arts dealer. Active in Paris from 1781, he founded "la Maison Lignereux". Lignereux was popular among the upper echelons of society both at home and abroad in his own lifetime, furnishing many stately homes and aristocratic residences throughout Europe.
Louis XVI furniture is characterized by elegance and neoclassicism, a return to ancient Greek and Roman models. Much of it was designed and made for Queen Marie Antoinette for the new apartments she created in the Palace of Versailles, Palace of Fontainebleau, the Tuileries Palace, and other royal residences. The finest craftsmen of the time, including Jean-Henri Riesener, Georges Jacob, Martin Carlin, and Jean-François Leleu, were engaged to design and make her furniture.
Charles-Caius Renoux was a French painter, lithographer, and illustrator. He first achieved success with paintings of medieval churches, particularly the ruins of cloisters and monasteries destroyed during the French Revolution, works for which he is still best known. Renoux also painted landscapes, large-scale battle scenes, and historical subjects, works which uniquely prepared him for the final phase of his career, the creation of spectacular dioramas, the “moving pictures” of the era. He also taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; his notable students included Narcisse Berchère and Hector Hanoteau.
References
- ↑ Société de l'histoire de l'art français (France); Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) (1852). Archives de l'art français. Robarts - University of Toronto. Paris F. de Nobele [etc.]
- ↑ Christies [ dead link ]
- ↑ Jérôme Merceron, Martin-Eloy Lignereux, marchand-mercier à Paris à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, Mémoire de DEA sous la direction de MM. Alain Mérot et Bill Pallot, 2000
- ↑ Pierre Verlet. (1958). Le Commerce des Objets d’Art et les marchands merciers à Paris au XVIIIe siècle persee.fr
- ↑ Merceron, 2000.
- ↑ The first Parisian boutique of Maison Lignereux is located 85 rue St-Honoré. Its first shop in London is on Piccadilly, followed by a boutique located 42 Sloane Street. Later on, Maison Lignereux moves its boutiques to 2 rue Christine, 44 rue Vivienne and finally 44 rue Taitbout.
- ↑ The French taste blended with England is analysed in the last paragraph of the following note: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/a-pair-of-empire-ormolu-mounted-japanese-black-3933065-details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=3933065&sid=553c1413-563e-4539-a6c6-f73c6199683f#top
- ↑ Secrétaire with panels of marbles and reverse glass painting by Weisweiler, supervised by Lignereux, Palacio De Oriente, Madrid : http://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L13/L13303/622L13303_6YMNT-comp7.jpg.thumb.319.319.png
- ↑ A magnificent and very rare Empire gilt bronze mounted console "A magnificent and very rare Empire gilt bronze mounted console". Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
- ↑ Pair of cabinets http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/31308/pair-of-cabinets
- ↑ Musee Nissim de Camondo: http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/francais/musees/musee-nissim-de-camondo/parcours/rez-de-chaussee-haut/le-grand-salon/paire-de-vases-couverts-en-bois
- ↑ In the Hôtel Lambert was a console in pietra dura made from a chimney from Maison Lignereux for Hortense de Beauharnais: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/LotDetailsPrintable.aspx?intObjectID=5474045
- ↑ La Gazette Drouot, 2006: http://www.gazette-drouot.com/static/magazine_ventes_aux_encheres/top_des_encheres/meuble_2006.html
- ↑ Un château Rothschild aux enchères: http://www.lesechos.fr/16/09/2011/LesEchos/21018-187-ECH_un-chateau-rothschild-aux-encheres.htm
- ↑ A Highly Important late Louis XVI ormolu-mounted Japanese black and gilt lacquer and ebony commode à vantaux and secrétaire à abattant en suitelate 18th century, attributed to Adam Weisweiler and Pierre-Philippe Thomire, under the direction of Martin-Eloi Lignereux: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/property-from-the-collections-of-lily-edmond-j-safra-n08822/lot.749.
- ↑ Photos du Grand Trianon à Versailles: http://voyager-comme-ulysse.com/grand-trianon/
- ↑ Alvar Gonzalez-Palacio highlighted and analysed Lignereux and Daguerre's realisations for the King and Queen of Naples. Major pieces from this ensemble now belong to the Metropolitan Museum: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/206589, http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/206588, http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/236097
- ↑ Peintures et mobilier des Musées de France: Malmaison http://notesdemusees.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/malmaison.html
- ↑ In particular a pair of ormolu sconces (Inventory Inv. 671C): http://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/sites/default/files/dossier_de_presse_au_temps_des_merveilleuses.pdf
- ↑ Pair of cabinets: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/31308/pair-of-cabinets
- ↑ "Sèvres porcelain factory - Vases à monter".
- ↑ Candelabra, Martin-Eloy Lignereux, National Trust Collections: http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/137836.2
- ↑ Pair of vases in petrified wood from the private collection of Queen Marie-Antoinette: http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/francais/musees/musee-nissim-de-camondo/parcours/rez-de-chaussee-haut/le-grand-salon/paire-de-vases-couverts-en-bois
- ↑ Some objects by Maison Lignereux, acquired by the Duke of Bedford during the Peace of Amiens, are still at Woburn Abbey (http://www.woburnabbey.co.uk/) while others went on auction in 2009: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2009/important-furniture-silver-ceramics-l09767/lot.17.html, http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2009/important-furniture-silver-ceramics-l09767/lot.16.html.
