Category: Applied Arts

French Furniture in the Eighteenth Century

The Golden Age of French Furniture in the Eighteenth Century

Some of the most beautiful and refined furniture ever made, displaying the highest level of artistic and technical ability, was created in Paris during the eighteenth century. Much admired by an international clientele, it was used to furnish residences all over Europe and also influenced fashions of cabinetmaking outside France.

 

Daniëlle O. Kisluk-Grosheide
Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2003

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French ceramics during the Renaissance

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Bernard Palissy and His School
The serious study of nature crops up in the work of the ceramist Bernard Palissy (1510–1590), as well as in that of other artists and architects like Philibert De L’Orme. Toward the end of his career, Palissy established a “little academy” in Sedan, in northeastern France, and gave lectures on the natural sciences there and in Paris that were published as the Discours admirables in 1580. Untutored in Latin and Greek , Palissy’s knowledge was practical and based on direct observation. He kept a cabinet of curiosities, and this spirit of taxonomy transferred delightfully to the surface of what he called rustiques figulines [sic]. Palissy developed a method of molding from fauna and flora and applying the casts as decoration to large basins. Having closely observed the locomotion of animals, he transformed the slithering or coiling of snakes into motifs that invigorated his clay compositions.  Textures of ferns and leaves contrast with the shiny spiral of the nautilus or sharp rim of the scallop, as he created works that mimic the habitat of a riverbank yet resolve into artistic order. His compositions read sometimes as parables: the cunning serpent preys on innocent creatures , or, in the tradition of tomb symbolism, snakes and frogs may represent the corruptibility of human flesh, while shells stand for eternal life. These tales in clay come brilliantly to life through stunning colors . Having begun his career as a stained-glass artist in Saintes, Palissy experimented with many enamel hues to achieve a rich palette of glazes.

Ian Wardropper
Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

April 200

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Gobelins

 

 

Colbert Visiting the Gobelins, Sébastien Leclerc I (French, Metz 1637–1714 Paris) 1665

This etching illustrates a visit to the Gobelins workshops by Colbert de Villacerf, Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi from 1691 to 1699. The workers are in the process of hanging one of a set of tapestries depicting the Story of Alexander, woven for Louis XIV after designs by Charles Le Brun.

 

In brief – About Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins (Tripadvisor)

The National Furniture Administration and the National Tapestry and Carpet Manufactories have brought together at the Gobelins site four historic institutions that date back to the 17th century: The National Furniture Collection, the Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory, The Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory (some of the workshops are also located in Beauvais), and La Savonnerie Carpet Manufactory.The exhibition space known as “La Galerie des Gobelins” welcomes temporary exhibitions.
Since 1662, when Louis XIV’s finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert decided to bring together all of the Parisian weaving and tapestry workshops as well as those set up in Maincy by Nicolas Fouquet in one location, the Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory has continued to play a key role in the history of tapestry. The workshop was named after a family of dyers, the Gobelins, who did business on the banks of the Bievre starting in the mid-15th century. Charles Le Brun, First Painter to Louis XIV, was the manufactory’s first director. He allowed not only painters and tapestry makers, but also goldsmiths, metal casters, engravers, and cabinetmakers to set up workshops at the Gobelins site. Under Le Brun’s supervision, the extraordinary tapestries produced at the manufactory, which were designed for the homes of French royalty and as diplomatic gifts, earned international renown that has survived for more than three centuries.

 Photographie : Jean-Philippe Humbert

Photographie : Jean-Philippe Humbert

Gobelins Manufactory (Wikipedia)

History

The Gobelins were a family of dyers who, in the middle of the 15th century, established themselves in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, Paris, on the banks of the Bièvre.  In 1602, Henry IV of France rented factory space from the Gobelins for his Flemish tapestry makers Marc de Comans and François de la Planche on the current location of the Gobelins Manufactory adjoining the Bièvre river. In 1629, their sons Charles de Comans and Raphaël de la Planche took over their fathers’ tapestry workshops and in 1633 Charles was the head of Gobelins manufactory. Their partnership ended around 1650 and the workshops were split into two. Tapestries from this early, Flemish, period are sometimes called pre-gobelins.
Death of Constantine tapestry (one in a series) after a design by Rubens woven by Filippe Maëcht and Hans Taye in the Comans-La Planche workshop, 1623-1625.

 

Colbert and Le Brun

In 1662 the works in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, with the adjoining grounds, were purchased by Jean-Baptiste Colbert on behalf of Louis XIV and made into a general upholstery factory, in which designs both in tapestry and in all kinds of furniture were executed under the superintendence of the royal painter, Charles Le Brun, who served as director and chief designer from 1663-1690. On account of Louis XIV’s financial problems, the establishment was closed in 1694, but reopened in 1697 for the manufacture of tapestry, chiefly for royal use. It rivalled the Beauvais tapestry works until the French Revolution, when work at the factory was suspended.

The factory was revived during the Bourbon Restoration and, in 1826, the manufacture of carpets was added to that of tapestry. In 1871 the building was partly burned down during the Paris Commune.

The factory is still in operation today as a state-run institution. The manufactory consists of a set of four irregular buildings dating to the seventeenth century, plus the building on the avenue des Gobelins built by Jean-Camille Formigé in 1912 after the 1871 fire. They contain Le Brun’s residence and workshops that served as foundries for most of the bronze statues in the park of Versailles, as well as looms on which tapestries are woven following seventeenth century techniques. The Gobelins still produces some limited amount of tapestries for the decoration of French governmental institutions, with contemporary subjects.

Rear view of the Gobelin Manufactory, adjoining the Bièvre river, in 1830.

 

The Miraculous Draft of Fishes

Although Gobelins is synonymous with tapestry, the two brothers never wove a thread. Their claim to fame in the tapestry world was making a special Venetian scarlet dye.

 

Winter, Cybele Begs for the Sun's Return

 

Tapestries sought to technically compete with paintings. Hundreds of new dyes were developed to create a range of subtle tonal qualities. Unfortunately, the ravages of time and light have destroyed much of these subtle effects.

 

 

 

 

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Further reading

European Tapestry Production and Patronage, 1600–1800

 

Further viewing

The Art of  Making a Tapestry : The Tapestry Manufactory at the Gobelins, Paris

Les Gobelins – Reportage

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angers

 

Apocalypse Tapestry, Angers, Jean Bondol and Nicholas Bataille, 1377 – 1382

 

 

The Art of French Tapestry Making – The Apocalypse

Britannica

Angers, city, capital of Maine-et-Loire département, Pays de la Loire région, western France. Angers is the former capital of Anjou and lies along the Maine River 5 miles (8 km) above the latter’s junction with the Loire River, northeast of Nantes. The old city is on the river’s left bank, with three bridges crossing to Doutre.

Maine River
Maine RiverThe Maine River flowing through Angers, France.Denis Pithon

Capital of the Andecavi, a Gallic tribe of the state of Andes, the ancient town became Juliomagus under the Romans. The succession of counts of Anjou began in the 9th century, and the rule of the Plantagenets was marked in Angers by the construction of magnificent monuments, of which the French Hôpital Saint-Jean (now housing an archaeological museum) is the most striking. The city’s massive, moated château, whose 17 towers are from 130 to 190 feet (40 to 58 metres) high, was built in 1230 on the site of earlier castles; it houses the late 14th-century Apocalypse series of tapestries (woven by Nicholas Bataille). Despite the damage of past wars, particularly World War II, Angers is still rich in medieval architecture. The 12th–13th-century cathedral of Saint-Maurice retains its original stained glass. The 15th-century Barrault House contains the public library, an art museum, and the complete works of the sculptor Pierre-Jean-David d’Angers, who was born in the city. The prefecture is in the former Saint-Aubin Abbey (11th century), which has Roman arcades. The medieval Universitas Andegavensis was refounded in 1876 as the Catholic Faculty of the West.

Angers: Cathedral of Saint-Maurice
Angers: Cathedral of Saint-MauriceCathedral of Saint-Maurice, Angers, France.© Christian Musat/Fotolia

The city’s traditional industries such as slate quarrying, distilling, rope and cable manufacture, and weaving have been supplemented by electronics, photographic equipment, and elevators. Pop. (1999) 151,279; (2014 est.) 151,056.

 

From BnF, France Archives – New Plan of the City of Angers

Enriched with the Map of the Surroundings and the Perspective of the City With its Principal Houses Raised by the care of the Mayors and Aldermen and Perpetual Councilors of the Town Hall brought to light in 1736

NouveauPlanAngers page3

 

Google Maps – Angers

Nantes Parks – Parc de la Beaujoire – Roseraie in Spring

Grand old gardens seem to assert the outer borders of Nantes in each direction but it is to the North that is located a roseraie for all seasons with ample flowering year round, old roses in their delicate majesty in the warmer months aside hardy new roses which still flower in the cold months.

 

Roseraie roses and perfume …

Rosa gallica ‘Officinalis’ or Rose de Provins

Using its flowers, as raw material, the apothecaries of Provins specialized, in the sixteenth century, in the preparation of powder, water, perfume, oil, jam. This commerce flourished to the extent that around the year 1600 the main street of this city was only open to apothecaries.

 

Rosa damascena ‘Trigintipetala’ or Rose of Kasanlik

Bulgaria has cultivated this rose for several centuries for perfumery. Other countries (Turkey, Morocco, India, China) also exploit this flower for its fragrance.

 

Rosa x centifolia or Rose hundred leaves (Rose with a hundred petals)

Cultivated in France in the Alpes Maritimes, this rose provides the most esteemed fragrance. The French production in 1990 amounting to nearly 320 tons of flowers.

 

The perfumes
Roses exhale fragrances of varying quality and intensity that sometimes influence the soil and climate. If Kasanlik’s rose and the rose of the painters smell pink, Golden Sun has a spicy smell. Other roses release bouquets of scents: apple and clove (Souvenir de la Malmaison), iris and violet (Maréchal Niel), rose and parsley (Mrs John Laing), anise (Paul Ricard).

 

Award of Garden Excellence
During the inauguration of the 10th Biennial of Fragrant Rose, on June 18, 2010, Mr. Maurice Jay, President of the French Rose Society, presents to the public the plaque of the Award of Garden Excellence, awarded by the World Federation of Societies de Roses in 2009, designating the International Rose Garden of Nantes as one of the 4 most beautiful in France (after the Haÿe les Roses in 1995, the Golden Head in 2006 and Bagatelle in 2007) and among the 35 remarkable rose gardens in the world.

 

To discover in the rose garden …

The alveoli
To accentuate the privileged contact with the roses, the designer drew paths symbolizing a branch of rose with its ramifications, its thorns and its flowers.

This route allows two complementary approaches:
– by taking the gravel circulations, the visitor perceives all the massifs with their modeling and their colors,
– using paved alleys, he enters the world of roses. The enthusiast has the leisure to seize the beauty, to capture the perfume, to know the name of each of them and to photograph his favorites.

 

The Ellipse of the medalists
Within this ellipse exposed to the South and sheltered from the wind are gathered the roses that constitute the ‘Top 50’ of the new varieties.

The belvedere
From this high point of the Roseraie, the view extends to the city center and, it is easy to appreciate the privileged site that occupies the park on the banks of the Erdre. This beautiful river, punctuated with castles, ranked ‘great national site’, promotes river tourism and water activities.

The Alley of Fragrances
This showcases rosebushes from the Nantaise Rose fragrance, whether award-winning or not, but always remarkable for their scent.

The Clos des Roses Parfumées
This forms an elliptical arena where the sweetest scents are confronted. Le Clos has been specially designed for the International Rose Perfume Contest using the model of this former artisanal quarry sheltered from the East winds.

 

The architecture takes up the theme of the Rose Garden.

The materials are of the same nature:
– Pontchâteau stone for the pavement of the Rose Garden (work done by the gardeners of the SEVE) which covers an area of ​​about 4,000 m2
– Pont Aven stone for the walls
– ironwork
– wood.

The Fan
The geometric design, inspired by an arabesque, consists of three varieties of roses. By their arrangement in ‘rainbow’, they create a variation of colors from yellow to dark red.

The Alley of ‘Old Glories’
Here are grouped the most deserving old roses, called for the occasion ‘the Old Glories’. Many of them offer a unique and generous bloom in May-June. The roses producing a second bloom at the end of summer (so-called ‘rising roses’) did not enter the gardens until the end of the 19th century.

 

 

 

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Google Maps – Parc Floral Roseraie

Montsoreau – Château

 

 

 

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French Porcelain

 Cité de la Céramique à Sèvres, 1740

 

 

French Porcelain in the Eighteenth Century

Porcelain was a relatively unknown commodity in seventeenth-century France. Examples of both Chinese and Japanese porcelain could be found in royal and aristocratic collections, but because of their cost, these objects were available only to the highest levels of society. Before the last decade of the seventeenth century, there was no domestic production of porcelain in France, and faience (tin-glazed earthenware) was the most common type of ceramic.

It is not surprising that the first porcelains produced in France were made at faience factories. Experiments in a Rouen faience factory owned by the Poterat family resulted in some of the earliest examples of soft-paste porcelain made in France. Soft-paste porcelain was a type of artificial porcelain that lacked the ingredients found in true or hard-paste porcelain. One of these ingredients, known as kaolin, was not discovered in France until the second half of the eighteenth century, and all French porcelain produced before 1770 was soft rather than hard paste.

Jeffrey Munger
Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2003

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