拍品专文
The sculptural and high relief carving executed with great precision and liveliness suggest that this screen is the work of a highly accomplished meuisier of the mid-eighteenth century. Manufactured out of oak, and not beech or walnut as was customary for seat furniture at the time, this lot was most likely conceived and executed as part of the interior wall decoration or boiserie of a room that were most often carved from this sturdy and resilient timber. Stylistically, this screen is most related to the oeuvre of the menuisiers Nicolas Heurtault (1720-1771) and Jean Avisse (1723-1796).
Heurtaut hailed from a Parisian dynasty of carvers and was the son of a maître sculpteur who was a member of the official school of sculpture, the future Académie de Saint-Luc. Heurtaut had a highly unusual and singular career at a time when the guild regulations were very strict; he first became a maître-sculpteur in 1742 and later a maître-ébéniste in 1753. This explains the exceptional quality of carving which is one of the main characteristics of his production, and to which the carving on this screen can be related. Surprisingly, he did not supply the Court but developed a very select, private clientele, counting the most fashionable patrons, including the duc de la Rochefoucault, Monseigneur de Saint-Aulaire and the duc de Luxembourg.
Avisse, whose workshop was established on the Rue Cléry, first supplied tapestry makers and marchands-merciers before he could exclusively work for private clients such as the Marquise de Chabannes, the Comtesse de Fontenay and the Chevalier de Lamotte. He worked with highly skilled woodcarvers such as Jean-François Baillard, Pierre Rousseau and Claude Vinache, producing some of the finest Rococo seat furniture of the eighteenth century.
Heurtaut hailed from a Parisian dynasty of carvers and was the son of a maître sculpteur who was a member of the official school of sculpture, the future Académie de Saint-Luc. Heurtaut had a highly unusual and singular career at a time when the guild regulations were very strict; he first became a maître-sculpteur in 1742 and later a maître-ébéniste in 1753. This explains the exceptional quality of carving which is one of the main characteristics of his production, and to which the carving on this screen can be related. Surprisingly, he did not supply the Court but developed a very select, private clientele, counting the most fashionable patrons, including the duc de la Rochefoucault, Monseigneur de Saint-Aulaire and the duc de Luxembourg.
Avisse, whose workshop was established on the Rue Cléry, first supplied tapestry makers and marchands-merciers before he could exclusively work for private clients such as the Marquise de Chabannes, the Comtesse de Fontenay and the Chevalier de Lamotte. He worked with highly skilled woodcarvers such as Jean-François Baillard, Pierre Rousseau and Claude Vinache, producing some of the finest Rococo seat furniture of the eighteenth century.