Lot Essay
These elegant goût grec consoles à encoignures were supplied to Pierre-Gaspard-Marie-Grimod d'Orsay, comte d'Orsay (1748-1809) for the first floor bedroom of his hôtel on the rue de Varenne, probably in 1768, by one of the count's regular suppliers such as the marchand-merciers Thomas-Joachim Hébert (d. 1773) and Charles-Raymond Granchez (active 1760s-1780s). The first documented mention of the encoignures occurs in an inventory compiled after the death of the comte d'Orsay's first wife, the princess
Marie-Louise-Albertine-Amélie de Croÿ Molembais. On the 28th of February, 1774 they were listed in the first floor bedroom:
'deux autres (consoles) en encoignure de bois d'ébène avec leurs bronzes de cuivre doré et leur dessus de marbre blanc veiné'.
During the Revolution, when the hôtel was impounded, the painter-dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun (d. 1813) [see note to lot 327] seized the furniture for the benefit of the Commission des Arts and described the consoles in a document: '93--deux encoignures à console à dessus de marbre blanc et pieds de biche, genre de boul, hauteur 27 pouces.' A few months later, on 2 Germinal An III, they were again mentioned when the hôtel was taken over by the Commission de la Marine:
'INSERT PATRICK'S INVENTORY EXCERPT'
The house and part of its contents were then sold to a pawn-broker and in 1799 the consoles were again listed being located in the ninth room on the ground floor as :
'deux consoles en cul de lampe en bois d'ébène garnies de cuivre d'or couvertes de leur marbre blanc veiné les deux consoles transportés dans le salon.'
Though inspired by a console design conceived by André-Charles Boulle and published by Mariette in his Nouveaux deisseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et de marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle, 1707-1730, plate 10 (see J.-P. Samoyault, André-Charles Boulle et sa famille: nouvelles recherches, nouveaux documents, 1979, p. 218), these encoignures with their simplified form and Vitruvian scroll mounts clearly reflect the taste for neoclassicism that was overshadowing rococo by the 1760s.
THE COMTE D'ORSAY AND HIS HÔTEL IN RUE DE VARENNE
D'Orsay (1748-1809) was the son of the wealthy fermier général and intendant des postes, Pierre Grimod Dufort. The young Grimod d'Orsay's two worldly ambitions were to live in a sumptuous environment surrounded by exquisite works of art and to marry into the aristocracy. In 1770, he married the princesse de Croÿ-Molembais by whom he had one son, the future general d'Orsay. Widowed at an early age of 24, he soon married again to Marie-Anne-Elisabeth de Hohenbole Woldenburg and left France permanently to live on the estate of his father-in-law in 1787. He then rented part of the house to William Beckford. As he was considered an émigré at the time of the Revolution, his possessions were confiscated and many pieces later found their way into the collections of various French museums.
The hôtel d'Orsay, formerly the hôtel de Clermont, on 69 rue de Varenne was built in the 18th century for marquis de Saissac. Her descendants sold the hôtel in 1768 to the young comte d'Orsay who moved in with his mother. The ground floor was redecorated in the latest neoclassical fashion by Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin (1734-1811), the young architect who in 1774 would work for the comte de Provence. There were Corinthian pilasters, garlands, cupids and medallions decorated à l'antique with various themes of love. The hôtel was also furnished with Old Master and contemporary paintings and exceptional furniture and objects. The boiseries for the salon are now in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (see Baulez, op.cit.). In the salon there were four giltwood consoles placed in each corner (sold Christie's London, 10 December 1992, lots 402-403). Surmounting these were four bronze groups depicting the seasons which the Count had bought at the sale of the collector Gaignat in 1769 and had Caffieri mount them as girandoles (now in the collection of the Queen of England).
The comte d'Orsay's bedroom, where the consoles were located was also furnished with the celebrated bureau à cylindre by Jean-Henri Riesener (now in the Wallace Collection), and a bed and chairs covered in crimson and white lampas by Louis Delanois. The hôtel also contained furniture by Jean-François Leleu and Pierre Roussel.
The American artist, John Trumbull, who visited the comte d'Orsay's residence on August 7, 1786, was astounded to find such riches, and commented on the decor '...Went to the house of the Count D'Orsay, said to be one of the most superb in Paris; it is truth overloaded with elegance; the furniture is expensive and rich, to a fault; the eye can find no rest...The picture room contains the most beautiful collection of perfect little things I have ever seen together...Small bronze copies of the finest antique statues, the choicest porcelain, &c. &c. literally crowd every apartment' (quoted in Pons, op.cit., p. 331).
Marie-Louise-Albertine-Amélie de Croÿ Molembais. On the 28th of February, 1774 they were listed in the first floor bedroom:
'deux autres (consoles) en encoignure de bois d'ébène avec leurs bronzes de cuivre doré et leur dessus de marbre blanc veiné'.
During the Revolution, when the hôtel was impounded, the painter-dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun (d. 1813) [see note to lot 327] seized the furniture for the benefit of the Commission des Arts and described the consoles in a document: '93--deux encoignures à console à dessus de marbre blanc et pieds de biche, genre de boul, hauteur 27 pouces.' A few months later, on 2 Germinal An III, they were again mentioned when the hôtel was taken over by the Commission de la Marine:
'INSERT PATRICK'S INVENTORY EXCERPT'
The house and part of its contents were then sold to a pawn-broker and in 1799 the consoles were again listed being located in the ninth room on the ground floor as :
'deux consoles en cul de lampe en bois d'ébène garnies de cuivre d'or couvertes de leur marbre blanc veiné les deux consoles transportés dans le salon.'
Though inspired by a console design conceived by André-Charles Boulle and published by Mariette in his Nouveaux deisseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et de marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle, 1707-1730, plate 10 (see J.-P. Samoyault, André-Charles Boulle et sa famille: nouvelles recherches, nouveaux documents, 1979, p. 218), these encoignures with their simplified form and Vitruvian scroll mounts clearly reflect the taste for neoclassicism that was overshadowing rococo by the 1760s.
THE COMTE D'ORSAY AND HIS HÔTEL IN RUE DE VARENNE
D'Orsay (1748-1809) was the son of the wealthy fermier général and intendant des postes, Pierre Grimod Dufort. The young Grimod d'Orsay's two worldly ambitions were to live in a sumptuous environment surrounded by exquisite works of art and to marry into the aristocracy. In 1770, he married the princesse de Croÿ-Molembais by whom he had one son, the future general d'Orsay. Widowed at an early age of 24, he soon married again to Marie-Anne-Elisabeth de Hohenbole Woldenburg and left France permanently to live on the estate of his father-in-law in 1787. He then rented part of the house to William Beckford. As he was considered an émigré at the time of the Revolution, his possessions were confiscated and many pieces later found their way into the collections of various French museums.
The hôtel d'Orsay, formerly the hôtel de Clermont, on 69 rue de Varenne was built in the 18th century for marquis de Saissac. Her descendants sold the hôtel in 1768 to the young comte d'Orsay who moved in with his mother. The ground floor was redecorated in the latest neoclassical fashion by Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin (1734-1811), the young architect who in 1774 would work for the comte de Provence. There were Corinthian pilasters, garlands, cupids and medallions decorated à l'antique with various themes of love. The hôtel was also furnished with Old Master and contemporary paintings and exceptional furniture and objects. The boiseries for the salon are now in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (see Baulez, op.cit.). In the salon there were four giltwood consoles placed in each corner (sold Christie's London, 10 December 1992, lots 402-403). Surmounting these were four bronze groups depicting the seasons which the Count had bought at the sale of the collector Gaignat in 1769 and had Caffieri mount them as girandoles (now in the collection of the Queen of England).
The comte d'Orsay's bedroom, where the consoles were located was also furnished with the celebrated bureau à cylindre by Jean-Henri Riesener (now in the Wallace Collection), and a bed and chairs covered in crimson and white lampas by Louis Delanois. The hôtel also contained furniture by Jean-François Leleu and Pierre Roussel.
The American artist, John Trumbull, who visited the comte d'Orsay's residence on August 7, 1786, was astounded to find such riches, and commented on the decor '...Went to the house of the Count D'Orsay, said to be one of the most superb in Paris; it is truth overloaded with elegance; the furniture is expensive and rich, to a fault; the eye can find no rest...The picture room contains the most beautiful collection of perfect little things I have ever seen together...Small bronze copies of the finest antique statues, the choicest porcelain, &c. &c. literally crowd every apartment' (quoted in Pons, op.cit., p. 331).