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拍品專文
Louis Delanois, maître in 1761
These magnificent fauteuils, with their richly carved, muscular architectural form are among the grandest known examples of seat furniture in the avant garde neo-classical style known as the ‘goût grec’. The boldness of the scroll arms and the distinct shape of the back recall the fauteuil in the portrait by Alexandre Roslin of the marquis de Marigny, Madame de Pompadour’s brother and an influential propagator of the new ‘antique’ style, shown seated at a desk of sober architectural form (illustrated here). Until their recent rediscovery in the Rothschild collections, only one other example of this remarkable model of fauteuil was known, formerly in the collections of Sir Robert Abdy and Karl Lagerfeld (sold Christie’s, Monaco, 29 April 2000, lot 320, FF2,677,500), and now in a private collection.
LOUIS DELANOIS AND AVANT GARDE COMMISSIONS
Louis Delanois was one of the foremost menuisiers of his time and worked very much at the forefront of taste. Established in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine near the rue de Bourbon on the rue du Petit Careau, his clients comprised the elite of high society including the prince de Condé, the comte d’Orsay, the prince de Beauvau, the duc de Bourbon and the comtesse de Choiseul.
Two commissions in particular demonstrated Delanois’s links to the most progressive, avant garde designers of the day in the new ‘antique’ style. In 1768 Delanois supplied an extensive group of seat furniture to the architect Victor Louis as part of the important project to furnish the Royal Palace of Warsaw in the new neo-classical style for the newly elected king of Poland, Stanislaus II. Stanislaus Poniatowski (who once elected king styled himself as August) was educated in Paris, where he met the celebrated saloniste Madame Geoffrin who became his unofficial artistic advisor and introduced him to many of the most influential architects and advisors of the day. In 1764 Stanislaus dispatched Casimir Czempinski, a dealer in Warsaw, to Paris as his buying agent to start buying works of art for the palace. Czempinski wrote to the king commenting that ‘dans tous les achats que je fais, je donne la préférence au bel antique, au Grec décidé…’. Victor Louis brought in other artists working in the new style, notably the bronziers Philippe Caffiéri (who had supplied the bronzes to the famous avant garde suite of furniture made for Lalive de Jully) and Jean-Louis Prieur. Prieur supplied Louis with a number of designs, including a series of ‘projets de sieges pour le roi de Pologne’ in 1766 which featured boldly sculptural details similar to the Rothschild and Lagerfeld fauteuils, such as the fluted seat-rails, powerful scrolls and use of floral garlands (illustrated here). Delanois’s bill to Louis on 27 September 1768 listed 13 ‘Grands fauteuils meublans’, 13 ‘fauteuils en cabriolets’ and a ‘Canapé en Confidant’ and included a complex series of presentation models. Interestingly it also specifies that this suite was all carved from walnut (‘bois de noyer’) which is also the case with these fauteuils. Last mentioned in an inventory in 1795, the mobilier supplied by Delanois to the palace of Warsaw has not been recorded since.
Soon after the commission for the king of Poland, in 1769 Delanois undertook perhaps his most important and celebrated commission, for Madame du Barry to whom he supplied more than 300 pieces of mobilier for her appartement at Versailles and for the Château de Louveciennes. Very few pieces from this fabled ensemble have survived, notably a firescreen in the Musée du Louvre, a pair of chaises formerly in the collection of Arturo Lopez Willshaw, (last sold at auction Christie’s, London 12 December 2002, lot 15, £732,650, now in a private collection); a further chaise together with a later copy, also formerly in the collection of Arturo Lopez Willshaw and sold Christie’s, Paris, 3-4 October 2012, lot 94 (€205,000) and a magnificent pair of fauteuils in this sale, lot 56. Little is known who designed these groundbreaking pieces, although one possibility could be Jacques Gondoin, who in 1769 became dessinateur du mobilier de la couronne.
These magnificent fauteuils, with their richly carved, muscular architectural form are among the grandest known examples of seat furniture in the avant garde neo-classical style known as the ‘goût grec’. The boldness of the scroll arms and the distinct shape of the back recall the fauteuil in the portrait by Alexandre Roslin of the marquis de Marigny, Madame de Pompadour’s brother and an influential propagator of the new ‘antique’ style, shown seated at a desk of sober architectural form (illustrated here). Until their recent rediscovery in the Rothschild collections, only one other example of this remarkable model of fauteuil was known, formerly in the collections of Sir Robert Abdy and Karl Lagerfeld (sold Christie’s, Monaco, 29 April 2000, lot 320, FF2,677,500), and now in a private collection.
LOUIS DELANOIS AND AVANT GARDE COMMISSIONS
Louis Delanois was one of the foremost menuisiers of his time and worked very much at the forefront of taste. Established in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine near the rue de Bourbon on the rue du Petit Careau, his clients comprised the elite of high society including the prince de Condé, the comte d’Orsay, the prince de Beauvau, the duc de Bourbon and the comtesse de Choiseul.
Two commissions in particular demonstrated Delanois’s links to the most progressive, avant garde designers of the day in the new ‘antique’ style. In 1768 Delanois supplied an extensive group of seat furniture to the architect Victor Louis as part of the important project to furnish the Royal Palace of Warsaw in the new neo-classical style for the newly elected king of Poland, Stanislaus II. Stanislaus Poniatowski (who once elected king styled himself as August) was educated in Paris, where he met the celebrated saloniste Madame Geoffrin who became his unofficial artistic advisor and introduced him to many of the most influential architects and advisors of the day. In 1764 Stanislaus dispatched Casimir Czempinski, a dealer in Warsaw, to Paris as his buying agent to start buying works of art for the palace. Czempinski wrote to the king commenting that ‘dans tous les achats que je fais, je donne la préférence au bel antique, au Grec décidé…’. Victor Louis brought in other artists working in the new style, notably the bronziers Philippe Caffiéri (who had supplied the bronzes to the famous avant garde suite of furniture made for Lalive de Jully) and Jean-Louis Prieur. Prieur supplied Louis with a number of designs, including a series of ‘projets de sieges pour le roi de Pologne’ in 1766 which featured boldly sculptural details similar to the Rothschild and Lagerfeld fauteuils, such as the fluted seat-rails, powerful scrolls and use of floral garlands (illustrated here). Delanois’s bill to Louis on 27 September 1768 listed 13 ‘Grands fauteuils meublans’, 13 ‘fauteuils en cabriolets’ and a ‘Canapé en Confidant’ and included a complex series of presentation models. Interestingly it also specifies that this suite was all carved from walnut (‘bois de noyer’) which is also the case with these fauteuils. Last mentioned in an inventory in 1795, the mobilier supplied by Delanois to the palace of Warsaw has not been recorded since.
Soon after the commission for the king of Poland, in 1769 Delanois undertook perhaps his most important and celebrated commission, for Madame du Barry to whom he supplied more than 300 pieces of mobilier for her appartement at Versailles and for the Château de Louveciennes. Very few pieces from this fabled ensemble have survived, notably a firescreen in the Musée du Louvre, a pair of chaises formerly in the collection of Arturo Lopez Willshaw, (last sold at auction Christie’s, London 12 December 2002, lot 15, £732,650, now in a private collection); a further chaise together with a later copy, also formerly in the collection of Arturo Lopez Willshaw and sold Christie’s, Paris, 3-4 October 2012, lot 94 (€205,000) and a magnificent pair of fauteuils in this sale, lot 56. Little is known who designed these groundbreaking pieces, although one possibility could be Jacques Gondoin, who in 1769 became dessinateur du mobilier de la couronne.