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拍品专文
Georges Jacob, maître in 1765.
This exquisite pair of banquettes was supplied to Monsieur, Comte de Provence, brother of Louis XVI and future Louis XVIII. The comte ordered the construction of a grand pavilion built on the grounds of Versailles for his beloved mistress, the Comtesse de Balbi. The banquettes were recently discovered as part of the celebrated suite of furniture commissioned for the salon, and are described in a mémoire from Georges Jacob of 24 April 1785.
The Comtesse de Balbi, née Anne Jacobée de Caumont La Force, was born in 1753 at the Château La Force in the Dordogne region of France. Her father was the Duc de Caumont de la Force, who served as a court official for King Louis XVI and was gentilhomme, First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, for the Comte de Provence. In 1776, Anne married the Comte Francesco Marie Armand de Balbi (1752-1835) from Genoa. As Comtesse, she first served as a mistress of the robes before becoming a lady-in-waiting to the Princess Marie Joséphine of Savoy, and Monsieur, the Comtesse de Pro.vence. The Comte de Provence fell in love with Anne de Balbi, infuriating her husband whom the Comte declared insane and imprisoned in a mental asylum in order to make her his mistress.
The Comte de Provence provided Anne with an apartment in the Petit Luxembourg in Paris, but she expressed her desire to be closer to Versailles. This affection for Anne led to the construction of her own garden pavilion at Versailles. The ‘Parc Balbi’ or ‘Folie Balbi’ was located directly south of the Pièce d’eau des Suisses, next to the Potager du Roi. Records indicate that in 1784, the Comte de Provence initiated an ambitious project to develop an idyllic country residence to enjoy with his mistress Anne de Balbi. Architect Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin, most famous for his design for the Arc de Triomphe, began the design for the residence in 1784. Through the redistribution and acquisition of several small plots of land, and after extensive landscaping was completed, construction for the pavilion took place between 1785-86. The comte and Chalgrin hired numerous craftsman and artisans for this undertaking. In the spring of 1785, orders were placed with the ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener and menuisier Georges Jacob to supply furniture to the pavilion. By the summer of 1787, the pavilion was redesigned three times, and it was determined that the increasingly vast property required a household staff and additional buildings.
The pavilion was designed in the Neoclassical style with special attention to maintaining harmony with the surroundings, taking care to erect large windows to allow natural light and views of the gardens. The interiors were adorned with Aubusson tapestries, mirrors from the Royal manufactory, tile and parquet floors, in addition to the lavish furniture, the rest of which was supplied by the comte’s Garde Meuble. The Comte de Provence retained his own garde meuble, separate from the Royal manufactories, to supply furniture to his residences and to meet the demands of the prominent commission. While the furniture in the pavilion was not branded like works from the Royal Garde Meuble, as was for example Marie-Antoinette’s Petit Trianon, it is recorded that works originally had a label designating the intended location.
A suite of exquisitely carved furniture, including this pair of banquettes, was made for the salon. It was painted in a pale pink ground with the elaborate carving accented in white, described as follows: 'Les fonds en couleur lilas clair et les ornements réchampis en blanc de plomb, puis encollés et vernis d'un beau vernis fin'. The decoration was possibly executed by Le Clerc, peintre et doreur du Garde-Meuble de Monsieur, or by Nicolas-René-Rémy Ménagé, whose workshop was close to Jacob's. The decoration of the suite embodied the genre arabesque, with bouquets of roses along the frieze, beaded tendrils and flourishing stalks on the legs. The present upholstery is directly after the original silk covering with motifs of mythology and nature in a pattern known as ‘aux cyclopes’. In Jacob’s bills of 1785, several of the pieces in the suite are noted as being of ‘de form nouvelle,’ illustrating the great innovation taking place in French decorative arts in the 1780s, and the comte’s desire to furnish the pavilion in the height of fashion.
The salon had a grandiose domed ceiling embellished in the characteristic genre arabesque, made popular in Parisian interior decoration following publications like those of architect and sculptor Gilles-Paul Cauvet, whose influential book of engraved designs was printed in 1777. The arabesque style in France was based on creating decoration that imitated patterns in nature that were reproduced in a melodic, continuous fashion, such as interlacing foliate scrolls and trailing leaf tendrils. This juxtaposition of naturalistic surface decoration with the more rigid Neoclassical form of the building was also in keeping with the setting of the pavilion in the gardens of Versailles. It is almost certain that Jean Démosthène Dugourc (1749-1825) was involved in the interior decoration scheme for the pavilion. Dugourc was appointed architect and designer for the Comte de Provence in 1780 when he redecorated the Château de Brunoy outside of Paris. Given the intricate carved decoration, as seen on the present pair of banquettes, it is also plausible that Dugourc may have worked on the initial design of the suite. The theme of naturalism was prevalent among royal country homes and gardens, and the trompe l’oeil decoration in the neighboring dining room illustrating greenery and vegetation was reminiscent of the work in the Comtesse de Provence’s pavilion in Montreuil and the hamlet of Chantilly erected by the Duc de Chartres. These motifs were further embodied through the pervasive use of toiles de Jouy textiles throughout the interior, including the salon, which featured use of the exotic pineapple. The Jouy-en-Josas manufacture was started by Franco-German industrialist Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf in 1760, and was appointed the royal manufacture of cotton and linen in 1783.
The furniture remained in the pavilion until 1793 when it was seized and sold in a Revolutionary sale. The surviving components, including these two rare banquettes, recently published in Versalia by Antoine Maës
and an exciting rediscovery, were dispersed among important institutions and private collections. The unusual canapé, with its inward-sloping crestrail, along with two bergeres, a fauteuil à la Reine, two voyeuses, a chauffeuse, and tabouret were donated to Versailles in 1966 by Pierre David-Weill. This group, together with another chair from the Louvre (OA 6513 ; VMB 14907 ; V 4448) previously in the collection of Isaac de Camondo and four additional fauteuils purchased by Versailles, is now on long term loan in le cabinet des glaces mouvantes at the Petit Trianon, an homage to the sumptuous furniture Jacob completed for Marie-Antoinette. A canapé, chauffeuse, four remaining fauteuils, and a fire screen were in the collection of Baron Henri de Rothschild, sold in 1923, and are now in private collections (see H. Lefuel, Georges Jacob, ébéniste du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1923, pp.278-282 and pp. 301-2). A further twelve chairs were identified along with the banquettes as previously unrecorded components of the suite. Though the pavilion was demolished in 1798, the ‘Parc Balbi’ still exists on the grounds of Versailles.
This exquisite pair of banquettes was supplied to Monsieur, Comte de Provence, brother of Louis XVI and future Louis XVIII. The comte ordered the construction of a grand pavilion built on the grounds of Versailles for his beloved mistress, the Comtesse de Balbi. The banquettes were recently discovered as part of the celebrated suite of furniture commissioned for the salon, and are described in a mémoire from Georges Jacob of 24 April 1785.
The Comtesse de Balbi, née Anne Jacobée de Caumont La Force, was born in 1753 at the Château La Force in the Dordogne region of France. Her father was the Duc de Caumont de la Force, who served as a court official for King Louis XVI and was gentilhomme, First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, for the Comte de Provence. In 1776, Anne married the Comte Francesco Marie Armand de Balbi (1752-1835) from Genoa. As Comtesse, she first served as a mistress of the robes before becoming a lady-in-waiting to the Princess Marie Joséphine of Savoy, and Monsieur, the Comtesse de Pro.vence. The Comte de Provence fell in love with Anne de Balbi, infuriating her husband whom the Comte declared insane and imprisoned in a mental asylum in order to make her his mistress.
The Comte de Provence provided Anne with an apartment in the Petit Luxembourg in Paris, but she expressed her desire to be closer to Versailles. This affection for Anne led to the construction of her own garden pavilion at Versailles. The ‘Parc Balbi’ or ‘Folie Balbi’ was located directly south of the Pièce d’eau des Suisses, next to the Potager du Roi. Records indicate that in 1784, the Comte de Provence initiated an ambitious project to develop an idyllic country residence to enjoy with his mistress Anne de Balbi. Architect Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin, most famous for his design for the Arc de Triomphe, began the design for the residence in 1784. Through the redistribution and acquisition of several small plots of land, and after extensive landscaping was completed, construction for the pavilion took place between 1785-86. The comte and Chalgrin hired numerous craftsman and artisans for this undertaking. In the spring of 1785, orders were placed with the ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener and menuisier Georges Jacob to supply furniture to the pavilion. By the summer of 1787, the pavilion was redesigned three times, and it was determined that the increasingly vast property required a household staff and additional buildings.
The pavilion was designed in the Neoclassical style with special attention to maintaining harmony with the surroundings, taking care to erect large windows to allow natural light and views of the gardens. The interiors were adorned with Aubusson tapestries, mirrors from the Royal manufactory, tile and parquet floors, in addition to the lavish furniture, the rest of which was supplied by the comte’s Garde Meuble. The Comte de Provence retained his own garde meuble, separate from the Royal manufactories, to supply furniture to his residences and to meet the demands of the prominent commission. While the furniture in the pavilion was not branded like works from the Royal Garde Meuble, as was for example Marie-Antoinette’s Petit Trianon, it is recorded that works originally had a label designating the intended location.
A suite of exquisitely carved furniture, including this pair of banquettes, was made for the salon. It was painted in a pale pink ground with the elaborate carving accented in white, described as follows: 'Les fonds en couleur lilas clair et les ornements réchampis en blanc de plomb, puis encollés et vernis d'un beau vernis fin'. The decoration was possibly executed by Le Clerc, peintre et doreur du Garde-Meuble de Monsieur, or by Nicolas-René-Rémy Ménagé, whose workshop was close to Jacob's. The decoration of the suite embodied the genre arabesque, with bouquets of roses along the frieze, beaded tendrils and flourishing stalks on the legs. The present upholstery is directly after the original silk covering with motifs of mythology and nature in a pattern known as ‘aux cyclopes’. In Jacob’s bills of 1785, several of the pieces in the suite are noted as being of ‘de form nouvelle,’ illustrating the great innovation taking place in French decorative arts in the 1780s, and the comte’s desire to furnish the pavilion in the height of fashion.
The salon had a grandiose domed ceiling embellished in the characteristic genre arabesque, made popular in Parisian interior decoration following publications like those of architect and sculptor Gilles-Paul Cauvet, whose influential book of engraved designs was printed in 1777. The arabesque style in France was based on creating decoration that imitated patterns in nature that were reproduced in a melodic, continuous fashion, such as interlacing foliate scrolls and trailing leaf tendrils. This juxtaposition of naturalistic surface decoration with the more rigid Neoclassical form of the building was also in keeping with the setting of the pavilion in the gardens of Versailles. It is almost certain that Jean Démosthène Dugourc (1749-1825) was involved in the interior decoration scheme for the pavilion. Dugourc was appointed architect and designer for the Comte de Provence in 1780 when he redecorated the Château de Brunoy outside of Paris. Given the intricate carved decoration, as seen on the present pair of banquettes, it is also plausible that Dugourc may have worked on the initial design of the suite. The theme of naturalism was prevalent among royal country homes and gardens, and the trompe l’oeil decoration in the neighboring dining room illustrating greenery and vegetation was reminiscent of the work in the Comtesse de Provence’s pavilion in Montreuil and the hamlet of Chantilly erected by the Duc de Chartres. These motifs were further embodied through the pervasive use of toiles de Jouy textiles throughout the interior, including the salon, which featured use of the exotic pineapple. The Jouy-en-Josas manufacture was started by Franco-German industrialist Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf in 1760, and was appointed the royal manufacture of cotton and linen in 1783.
The furniture remained in the pavilion until 1793 when it was seized and sold in a Revolutionary sale. The surviving components, including these two rare banquettes, recently published in Versalia by Antoine Maës
and an exciting rediscovery, were dispersed among important institutions and private collections. The unusual canapé, with its inward-sloping crestrail, along with two bergeres, a fauteuil à la Reine, two voyeuses, a chauffeuse, and tabouret were donated to Versailles in 1966 by Pierre David-Weill. This group, together with another chair from the Louvre (OA 6513 ; VMB 14907 ; V 4448) previously in the collection of Isaac de Camondo and four additional fauteuils purchased by Versailles, is now on long term loan in le cabinet des glaces mouvantes at the Petit Trianon, an homage to the sumptuous furniture Jacob completed for Marie-Antoinette. A canapé, chauffeuse, four remaining fauteuils, and a fire screen were in the collection of Baron Henri de Rothschild, sold in 1923, and are now in private collections (see H. Lefuel, Georges Jacob, ébéniste du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1923, pp.278-282 and pp. 301-2). A further twelve chairs were identified along with the banquettes as previously unrecorded components of the suite. Though the pavilion was demolished in 1798, the ‘Parc Balbi’ still exists on the grounds of Versailles.