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Lot Essay
Pierre Garnier, maître in 1742.
This superb Louis XVI frame is stamped by the Parisian ébéniste Pierre Garnier (d. 1806), one of the early pioneers of the new neo-classical gôut grec style. The early development of the neo-classical style in furniture was driven in particular by three avant-garde ébénistes, Pierre Garnier and the German-born cabinet-makers Jean-François Oeben and Joseph Baumhauer, reacting against the whimsical 'rocaille'. Around 1754-1756, the first experimental items of furniture in this style were conceived and produced, notably the great ebony bureau plat made for the connoisseur-collector Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully (d. 1779), probably by Joseph Baumhauer and Philippe Caffiéri to the designs of Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain, which is now at the Musée Condé at Chantilly (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London 1974, figs. 85-89).
PIERRE GARNIER
Pierre Garnier, son of the cabinet-maker François Garnier, became maître-ébéniste in 1742 at the early age of 16 and from 1761 produced furniture in an advanced neo-classical style based on rectilinear forms and ornamentation derived from the architecture of classical antiquity and following the designs of the architect Charles de Wailly (d. 1798). De Wailly presented a number of revolutionary pieces of furniture at the biannual Paris Salon in 1761, including a secrétaire belonging to Marie-Thérèse du Cluzel de la Chabrerie, wife of the maître des requêtes, Philippe-Etienne Desvieux. Made by Garnier, it was described in the Avant-Coureur as being 'traité dans le meilleur goût de Boulle’, implying it was of severe outline, veneered with ebony and fitted with ponderous gilt-bronze mounts (C. Huchet de Quénetain, Pierre Garnier, Paris, 2003, p. 29). This early and highly publicised collaboration with de Wailly may have brought Garnier to the attention of one of the most influential protagonists of the new style, Abel François Poisson de Vandières, Marquis de Marigny et de Menars (d. 1781).
MARQUIS DE MARIGNY
The Marquis de Marigny was the younger brother and heir of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame de Pompadour, principal mistress to Louis XV from 1745 until her death in 1764. The family became one of the most important noblesse de robe families in 18th-century France. Madame de Pompadour was eager to introduce her brother to court, and arranged for him to dine à trois with the king in her apartments at Versailles. Marigny formed a steadfast and affectionate bond with the king that culminated in his significant appointment from 1751 to 1773 as Directeur Général des Bâtiments, Jardins, Arts, Academies, et Manufactures du Roi, or, as styled by the painter François Boucher, 'Ministre des Arts’ (S. Eriksen, ‘Some letters from the Marquis de Marigny to his cabinet-maker Pierre Garnier’, Furniture History Society, Leeds, 1972, p. 78).
Marigny was celebrated for his superb art collection, which included a number of items with royal provenance, comprising gifts he received from Louis XV, as well as items inherited from the similarly remarkable collection of his sister. The marquis owned or leased at least six houses, and furthermore used suites of apartments in the royal châteaux. His own homes included the hôtel de Marigny in Paris, another hôtel de Marigny on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré at Roule, the château de Marigny, the château de Menars inherited from Madame de Pompadour in 1764, and from 1779 until his death, two new Parisian houses, the hôtel de Menars on the place des Victoires, and Le Pâté-Pâris, a pavilion east of Paris.
Marigny’s extensive surviving correspondence and domestic records, which include an inventory with supporting legal documents, makes his household one of the best documented of the 18th Century, providing a unique insight into his taste in furniture, which was noted for its restrained elegance, so beautifully exemplified by this frame (A.R. Gordon, The Houses and Collections of the Marquis de Marigny, Los Angeles, 2003, p. 1). Marigny was an admirer of André-Charles Boulle and Boulle-inspired furniture, which he had arranged alongside contemporary works in his preferred neo-classical style. Marigny’s predilection for lacquer, ebony and mahogany applied with contrasting ormolu mounts is demonstrated most notably by one of the most magnificent examples of 18th-century lacquer furniture that he owned, a commode veneered with panels of Japanese lacquer, supplied by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier in 1766, and made by Joseph Baumhauer.
As the remarkable series of letters from the marquis de Marigny to Pierre Garnier show, he held the cabinet-maker in high esteem and entrusted him with a variety of commissions (Eriksen, op. cit., pp. 78-85). Marigny asked Garnier to design various items of furniture, as well as the mounts with which to enrich a plain piece of ebony furniture; the cabinet-maker himself was clearly active as a designer, which may explain the idiosyncratic nature of many of his most ambitious productions. In 1779, Marigny wrote to Garnier advising him that, 'les meubles en ébenne et bronze sont beaucoup plus nobles que les meubles en acajou’ (Eriksen, op. cit., p. 83), and on the 3rd November 1779, the ébéniste was instructed to change an original order for Library furniture in ‘acajou’ to ‘ébenne' (ibid., p. 82).
A UNIQUE PIECE BY GARNIER
Among the richly-mounted group of ebony furniture executed by Garnier in the 1760s, mirrors and frames are virtually unknown, and the present mirror is yet another testimony of the close collaboration of Garnier and Marigny resulting in the most unexpected and avant-garde works of art in the ‘antique’ fashion. This mirror, together with its pair, were conceived as picture frames, and adorned portraits of his sister Madame de Pompadour, and of his wife Adelaide Filleul. They are described in the marquis’ correspondence now in the Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville de Paris (departements des manuscripts NA 106). In December 1779 the marquis wrote:
'j’ai demandé de me faire venir à Paris les deux portraits de ma sœur et de ma femme ovales dans leur bordures d’ébène et bronze qui sont dans ma chambre à coucher a Ménar'
The interior dimensions of the frame (73 x 59 cm.) have enabled us to determine that it may have adorned a portrait of Madame de Pompadour by François Hubert Drouais now at the Musée d’Orléans. A full-length version is in the National Gallery in London; other versions are known and it is probable the marquis had commissioned the original while others were presented to friends of la Favorite. A further portrait may be considered although the dimensions don’t match entirely: one of madame de Pompadour in the David M. Stewart Museum in Montreal, which Xavier Salmon attributes to Drouais also. Here the marquise is represented as Vestale with her hand on the livre des Vestales, a copy of which she had in her library (‘Madame de Pompadour’, exh. cat., Paris, 2002, pp. 164-166). The portrait of Marigny’s wife Adelaide Filleul has not yet been traced and virtually no image of her is known except for the joint portrait of the marquis and marquis de Marigny together by Van Loo dated 1769 and now in the Louvre (inv. 94-055926).
This superb Louis XVI frame is stamped by the Parisian ébéniste Pierre Garnier (d. 1806), one of the early pioneers of the new neo-classical gôut grec style. The early development of the neo-classical style in furniture was driven in particular by three avant-garde ébénistes, Pierre Garnier and the German-born cabinet-makers Jean-François Oeben and Joseph Baumhauer, reacting against the whimsical 'rocaille'. Around 1754-1756, the first experimental items of furniture in this style were conceived and produced, notably the great ebony bureau plat made for the connoisseur-collector Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully (d. 1779), probably by Joseph Baumhauer and Philippe Caffiéri to the designs of Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain, which is now at the Musée Condé at Chantilly (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London 1974, figs. 85-89).
PIERRE GARNIER
Pierre Garnier, son of the cabinet-maker François Garnier, became maître-ébéniste in 1742 at the early age of 16 and from 1761 produced furniture in an advanced neo-classical style based on rectilinear forms and ornamentation derived from the architecture of classical antiquity and following the designs of the architect Charles de Wailly (d. 1798). De Wailly presented a number of revolutionary pieces of furniture at the biannual Paris Salon in 1761, including a secrétaire belonging to Marie-Thérèse du Cluzel de la Chabrerie, wife of the maître des requêtes, Philippe-Etienne Desvieux. Made by Garnier, it was described in the Avant-Coureur as being 'traité dans le meilleur goût de Boulle’, implying it was of severe outline, veneered with ebony and fitted with ponderous gilt-bronze mounts (C. Huchet de Quénetain, Pierre Garnier, Paris, 2003, p. 29). This early and highly publicised collaboration with de Wailly may have brought Garnier to the attention of one of the most influential protagonists of the new style, Abel François Poisson de Vandières, Marquis de Marigny et de Menars (d. 1781).
MARQUIS DE MARIGNY
The Marquis de Marigny was the younger brother and heir of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame de Pompadour, principal mistress to Louis XV from 1745 until her death in 1764. The family became one of the most important noblesse de robe families in 18th-century France. Madame de Pompadour was eager to introduce her brother to court, and arranged for him to dine à trois with the king in her apartments at Versailles. Marigny formed a steadfast and affectionate bond with the king that culminated in his significant appointment from 1751 to 1773 as Directeur Général des Bâtiments, Jardins, Arts, Academies, et Manufactures du Roi, or, as styled by the painter François Boucher, 'Ministre des Arts’ (S. Eriksen, ‘Some letters from the Marquis de Marigny to his cabinet-maker Pierre Garnier’, Furniture History Society, Leeds, 1972, p. 78).
Marigny was celebrated for his superb art collection, which included a number of items with royal provenance, comprising gifts he received from Louis XV, as well as items inherited from the similarly remarkable collection of his sister. The marquis owned or leased at least six houses, and furthermore used suites of apartments in the royal châteaux. His own homes included the hôtel de Marigny in Paris, another hôtel de Marigny on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré at Roule, the château de Marigny, the château de Menars inherited from Madame de Pompadour in 1764, and from 1779 until his death, two new Parisian houses, the hôtel de Menars on the place des Victoires, and Le Pâté-Pâris, a pavilion east of Paris.
Marigny’s extensive surviving correspondence and domestic records, which include an inventory with supporting legal documents, makes his household one of the best documented of the 18th Century, providing a unique insight into his taste in furniture, which was noted for its restrained elegance, so beautifully exemplified by this frame (A.R. Gordon, The Houses and Collections of the Marquis de Marigny, Los Angeles, 2003, p. 1). Marigny was an admirer of André-Charles Boulle and Boulle-inspired furniture, which he had arranged alongside contemporary works in his preferred neo-classical style. Marigny’s predilection for lacquer, ebony and mahogany applied with contrasting ormolu mounts is demonstrated most notably by one of the most magnificent examples of 18th-century lacquer furniture that he owned, a commode veneered with panels of Japanese lacquer, supplied by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier in 1766, and made by Joseph Baumhauer.
As the remarkable series of letters from the marquis de Marigny to Pierre Garnier show, he held the cabinet-maker in high esteem and entrusted him with a variety of commissions (Eriksen, op. cit., pp. 78-85). Marigny asked Garnier to design various items of furniture, as well as the mounts with which to enrich a plain piece of ebony furniture; the cabinet-maker himself was clearly active as a designer, which may explain the idiosyncratic nature of many of his most ambitious productions. In 1779, Marigny wrote to Garnier advising him that, 'les meubles en ébenne et bronze sont beaucoup plus nobles que les meubles en acajou’ (Eriksen, op. cit., p. 83), and on the 3rd November 1779, the ébéniste was instructed to change an original order for Library furniture in ‘acajou’ to ‘ébenne' (ibid., p. 82).
A UNIQUE PIECE BY GARNIER
Among the richly-mounted group of ebony furniture executed by Garnier in the 1760s, mirrors and frames are virtually unknown, and the present mirror is yet another testimony of the close collaboration of Garnier and Marigny resulting in the most unexpected and avant-garde works of art in the ‘antique’ fashion. This mirror, together with its pair, were conceived as picture frames, and adorned portraits of his sister Madame de Pompadour, and of his wife Adelaide Filleul. They are described in the marquis’ correspondence now in the Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville de Paris (departements des manuscripts NA 106). In December 1779 the marquis wrote:
'j’ai demandé de me faire venir à Paris les deux portraits de ma sœur et de ma femme ovales dans leur bordures d’ébène et bronze qui sont dans ma chambre à coucher a Ménar'
The interior dimensions of the frame (73 x 59 cm.) have enabled us to determine that it may have adorned a portrait of Madame de Pompadour by François Hubert Drouais now at the Musée d’Orléans. A full-length version is in the National Gallery in London; other versions are known and it is probable the marquis had commissioned the original while others were presented to friends of la Favorite. A further portrait may be considered although the dimensions don’t match entirely: one of madame de Pompadour in the David M. Stewart Museum in Montreal, which Xavier Salmon attributes to Drouais also. Here the marquise is represented as Vestale with her hand on the livre des Vestales, a copy of which she had in her library (‘Madame de Pompadour’, exh. cat., Paris, 2002, pp. 164-166). The portrait of Marigny’s wife Adelaide Filleul has not yet been traced and virtually no image of her is known except for the joint portrait of the marquis and marquis de Marigny together by Van Loo dated 1769 and now in the Louvre (inv. 94-055926).