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Lot Essay
This rare and charming commode is one of the foremost examples of the principal speciality of the ébéniste René Dubois: furniture painted green and decorated with grisaille panels. René was the son of the famous maître-ébéniste Jacques Dubois (1694-1763) and he continued to work in his father's workshop after becoming a master himself. After the death of Jacques Dubois, his widow nominally took over the workshop which was now effectively run by René. He continued to use his father's stamp, even after finally taking charge of the firm himself at the time of his marriage in 1772.
In that year, an inventory of the stock of the workshop was made up which lists about 80 pieces of furniture in various states of completion, of which 25 were commodes. Eighteen pieces were painted. When the colour was indicated, this was invariably green, and in various instances painted scenes were mentioned as well, either 'tableaux' or 'paysages' (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Furniture and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg 1974, pp. 870-871). There are a number of pieces of green-painted furniture by Dubois known that are indeed decorated with polychrome landscape scenes, such as a demi-lune commode at Waddesdon Manor inscribed with the name of the shop of the marchand-mercier Charles-Raymond Grancher, Au petit Dunkerque (Bellaigue, op. cit., no. 49). More numerous, however, are those that, like the present commode, are painted en grisaille. They include various types of secretaires and small, elegant writing desks, such as a secrétaire-bibliothèque and a secrétaire en pente offered at Christie's New York, 21 October 2004, lots 1257 and 1258. Occasionally the grisaille scenes feature nymphs or goddesses, but mostly they are of children playing, as on the present commode.
THE PAINTED DECORATION
The front of the commode features a winding procession including a cart, a boy riding a goat and boys blowing trumpets. In the upper part of the procession, the boys carry a seemingly heavy garland of flowers. Very similar scenes occur on a number of other pieces by Dubois, notably two secretaires, one formerly in the collection of Madame Henry Farman (Pradère, op.cit., fig. 341) and the other at Schloss Ludwigsburg, probably acquired before 1788 by Carl Eugen Duke of Württemberg (B. Franz a.o., Die französischen Möbel des 18. Jahrhunderts in Schloss Ludwigsburg, Schwetzingen 1998, no. 11). There is little doubt that these painted scenes are all the work of the same artist, possibly the 'Dubois, peintre' to whom the Dubois workshop owed 214 livres in 1772 and who may have been a relation. These scenes have been described as in the manner of Louis-Félix de La Rue, but no precise source for them has been identified and they may well be inventions of the painter who executed them, though obviously in fashionable taste. Dubois also produced furniture lacquered in the oriental manner, for which by contrast it has on occasion been possible to find the print sources, engraved after Boucher and Pillement (D.O. Kisluk-Grosheide, 'A japanned secretaire in the Linsky collection with decorations after Boucher and Pillement', Metropolitan Museum Journal 21 (1986), pp. 139-147).
There is another commode of nearly identical form, also by Dubois but veneered with rosewood (J. Nicolay, L'art et la manière des maîtres ébénistes français au XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1956, p. 160, fig. G). On this, several of the same mounts are repeated. They were by no means exclusive to Dubois. The apron-mount, in particular, is of a well-known model employed by famous ébénistes such as Jean-Henri Riesener and Pierre-Antoine Foullet. The combination of the apron-mount and the corner-mounts is also found on a pair of lacquer-mounted commodes by Pierre Garnier (c. 1720-1800) in the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris, and the gilt-bronze surrounds of the painted scenes occur as well on a lacquer secretaire by Garnier in the Louvre (Wolvesperges, op. cit., figs. 174 and 175). It is conceivable that Garnier and Dubois created these pieces of furniture for the same marchand-mercier.
In that year, an inventory of the stock of the workshop was made up which lists about 80 pieces of furniture in various states of completion, of which 25 were commodes. Eighteen pieces were painted. When the colour was indicated, this was invariably green, and in various instances painted scenes were mentioned as well, either 'tableaux' or 'paysages' (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Furniture and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg 1974, pp. 870-871). There are a number of pieces of green-painted furniture by Dubois known that are indeed decorated with polychrome landscape scenes, such as a demi-lune commode at Waddesdon Manor inscribed with the name of the shop of the marchand-mercier Charles-Raymond Grancher, Au petit Dunkerque (Bellaigue, op. cit., no. 49). More numerous, however, are those that, like the present commode, are painted en grisaille. They include various types of secretaires and small, elegant writing desks, such as a secrétaire-bibliothèque and a secrétaire en pente offered at Christie's New York, 21 October 2004, lots 1257 and 1258. Occasionally the grisaille scenes feature nymphs or goddesses, but mostly they are of children playing, as on the present commode.
THE PAINTED DECORATION
The front of the commode features a winding procession including a cart, a boy riding a goat and boys blowing trumpets. In the upper part of the procession, the boys carry a seemingly heavy garland of flowers. Very similar scenes occur on a number of other pieces by Dubois, notably two secretaires, one formerly in the collection of Madame Henry Farman (Pradère, op.cit., fig. 341) and the other at Schloss Ludwigsburg, probably acquired before 1788 by Carl Eugen Duke of Württemberg (B. Franz a.o., Die französischen Möbel des 18. Jahrhunderts in Schloss Ludwigsburg, Schwetzingen 1998, no. 11). There is little doubt that these painted scenes are all the work of the same artist, possibly the 'Dubois, peintre' to whom the Dubois workshop owed 214 livres in 1772 and who may have been a relation. These scenes have been described as in the manner of Louis-Félix de La Rue, but no precise source for them has been identified and they may well be inventions of the painter who executed them, though obviously in fashionable taste. Dubois also produced furniture lacquered in the oriental manner, for which by contrast it has on occasion been possible to find the print sources, engraved after Boucher and Pillement (D.O. Kisluk-Grosheide, 'A japanned secretaire in the Linsky collection with decorations after Boucher and Pillement', Metropolitan Museum Journal 21 (1986), pp. 139-147).
There is another commode of nearly identical form, also by Dubois but veneered with rosewood (J. Nicolay, L'art et la manière des maîtres ébénistes français au XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1956, p. 160, fig. G). On this, several of the same mounts are repeated. They were by no means exclusive to Dubois. The apron-mount, in particular, is of a well-known model employed by famous ébénistes such as Jean-Henri Riesener and Pierre-Antoine Foullet. The combination of the apron-mount and the corner-mounts is also found on a pair of lacquer-mounted commodes by Pierre Garnier (c. 1720-1800) in the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris, and the gilt-bronze surrounds of the painted scenes occur as well on a lacquer secretaire by Garnier in the Louvre (Wolvesperges, op. cit., figs. 174 and 175). It is conceivable that Garnier and Dubois created these pieces of furniture for the same marchand-mercier.