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Lot Essay
Nicolas Quinibert Foliot, maître in 1729.
This magnificent and richly carved ‘lit à la turque’ with sinuous frame wrapped in watery palm fronds, is characteristic of the oeuvre of the celebrated menuisier en siège Nicolas Quinibert Foliot (1706-1776). Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot (maître in 1729) member of the Foliot dynasty was one of the foremost menuisiers of the Louis XV period and from an early stage in his career was a fournisseur attitré du Garde-Meuble Royal. He supplied seat-furniture to the Crown and other influential aristocrats including the Marquis de Briqueville, the comte d'Artois and the duc de Penthièvre.
A 'tour de force' of the art of the 'sculpteur', this sofa closely relates to a remarkable suite of seat furniture supplied by him circa 1754 to the baron de Bernstorff for his palace in Copenhagen by Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot, after designs by the architect Pierre Contant d'Ivry, is illustrated in B. Pallot, L'Art du Siège au XVIIIe Siècle en France, Paris, 1987, pp. 168-169, now in the Metropolitan Museum. The Bernstorff commission also included console tables and is distinguished for its fusion of rococo motifs within a controlled neoclassical design. An armchair by Foliot with similar palm-wrapped frame in the Louvre is illustrated in B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, vol. II, pp. 74-75, fig. 21. An early Louis XV console with frame composed entirely of palm fronds, also in the Louvre, may have provided the inspiration for such distinctive seat furniture designs, see Pallot, op. cit., pp. 56-57, fig. 15.
The lit à la turque appeared in the mid-eighteenth century when the fashion for turquerie emerged, this type of beds was meant to be positioned lengthwise against the wall, usually in an alcove with large cushions emulating the comfortable and luxuriant lifestyle of the Ottomans. It was distinguished from other forms of beds by its symmetrically waisted and out-scrolled head and footboards. In 1771, L’Encyclopédie, Tome IX, pl. V, fig. 2 featured a ‘lit à la turque à trois dossiers’ of closely related form, while in 1779 Roubot in his Art du Menuisier, stated that a lit à la turque has dossiers cintrés et forment un enroulement par le haut (with curved backs scrolled to the upper sections). A fashionable piece of furniture, the lit à la turque was found in the households of such arbiters of taste as Madame de Pompadour, who was considered one of the main trendsetters of the goût turc and who commissioned a portrait of herself by Charles André van Loo as a Sultana in 1755. She had two such beds in her possession: une couchette a deux chevets et à la turque and un grand bois de lit à la turque, aussy composée d'une couchette, deux grands dossiers, see J. Cordey, Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour, Paris, 1939, pp. 155 and 52, respectively. In 1755, the inventory of the country house of Baron d'Ogny à Clichy records un lit à la turque peint en vert, while a related giltwood lit à la turque can be seen in Valade's celebrated portrait of Monsieur et Madame de Faventines, now at the château de Maisons-Lafitte (inv. no. ML606).
The provenance of this masterpiece can be traced back to the nineteenth century in one of the most important collections of the time: that of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934). Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the son of James and brother of Gustave and Alphonse, entered the Académie Française in 1905. A passionate connoisseur and philanthropist, in 1873 he bequeathed artefacts from the Milet excavation to the Louvre and subsequently, in 1895, added to this gift the Boscoreale treasures. Following his death, the Louvre again benefitted from his bequest of 6,000 drawings and 40,000 engravings and prints. The Baron's superlative collection was displayed at the châteaux d'Armainvilliers and de Boulogne and, in Paris, at his hôtel particulier located at 41 rue de Faubourg Saint Honoré.
This magnificent and richly carved ‘lit à la turque’ with sinuous frame wrapped in watery palm fronds, is characteristic of the oeuvre of the celebrated menuisier en siège Nicolas Quinibert Foliot (1706-1776). Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot (maître in 1729) member of the Foliot dynasty was one of the foremost menuisiers of the Louis XV period and from an early stage in his career was a fournisseur attitré du Garde-Meuble Royal. He supplied seat-furniture to the Crown and other influential aristocrats including the Marquis de Briqueville, the comte d'Artois and the duc de Penthièvre.
A 'tour de force' of the art of the 'sculpteur', this sofa closely relates to a remarkable suite of seat furniture supplied by him circa 1754 to the baron de Bernstorff for his palace in Copenhagen by Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot, after designs by the architect Pierre Contant d'Ivry, is illustrated in B. Pallot, L'Art du Siège au XVIIIe Siècle en France, Paris, 1987, pp. 168-169, now in the Metropolitan Museum. The Bernstorff commission also included console tables and is distinguished for its fusion of rococo motifs within a controlled neoclassical design. An armchair by Foliot with similar palm-wrapped frame in the Louvre is illustrated in B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, vol. II, pp. 74-75, fig. 21. An early Louis XV console with frame composed entirely of palm fronds, also in the Louvre, may have provided the inspiration for such distinctive seat furniture designs, see Pallot, op. cit., pp. 56-57, fig. 15.
The lit à la turque appeared in the mid-eighteenth century when the fashion for turquerie emerged, this type of beds was meant to be positioned lengthwise against the wall, usually in an alcove with large cushions emulating the comfortable and luxuriant lifestyle of the Ottomans. It was distinguished from other forms of beds by its symmetrically waisted and out-scrolled head and footboards. In 1771, L’Encyclopédie, Tome IX, pl. V, fig. 2 featured a ‘lit à la turque à trois dossiers’ of closely related form, while in 1779 Roubot in his Art du Menuisier, stated that a lit à la turque has dossiers cintrés et forment un enroulement par le haut (with curved backs scrolled to the upper sections). A fashionable piece of furniture, the lit à la turque was found in the households of such arbiters of taste as Madame de Pompadour, who was considered one of the main trendsetters of the goût turc and who commissioned a portrait of herself by Charles André van Loo as a Sultana in 1755. She had two such beds in her possession: une couchette a deux chevets et à la turque and un grand bois de lit à la turque, aussy composée d'une couchette, deux grands dossiers, see J. Cordey, Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour, Paris, 1939, pp. 155 and 52, respectively. In 1755, the inventory of the country house of Baron d'Ogny à Clichy records un lit à la turque peint en vert, while a related giltwood lit à la turque can be seen in Valade's celebrated portrait of Monsieur et Madame de Faventines, now at the château de Maisons-Lafitte (inv. no. ML606).
The provenance of this masterpiece can be traced back to the nineteenth century in one of the most important collections of the time: that of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934). Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the son of James and brother of Gustave and Alphonse, entered the Académie Française in 1905. A passionate connoisseur and philanthropist, in 1873 he bequeathed artefacts from the Milet excavation to the Louvre and subsequently, in 1895, added to this gift the Boscoreale treasures. Following his death, the Louvre again benefitted from his bequest of 6,000 drawings and 40,000 engravings and prints. The Baron's superlative collection was displayed at the châteaux d'Armainvilliers and de Boulogne and, in Paris, at his hôtel particulier located at 41 rue de Faubourg Saint Honoré.