A LOUIS XVI POLYCHROME-PAINTED FOUR-LEAF SCREEN
A LOUIS XVI POLYCHROME-PAINTED FOUR-LEAF SCREEN

CIRCA 1780-1790, ORIGINALLY FORMING BOISERIE PANELS, WITH CONSEQUENTIAL ALTERATIONS

Details
A LOUIS XVI POLYCHROME-PAINTED FOUR-LEAF SCREEN
CIRCA 1780-1790, ORIGINALLY FORMING BOISERIE PANELS, WITH CONSEQUENTIAL ALTERATIONS
Each panel with two recessed panels, the larger top panel with amorouos couples issuing from foliage and above an octagon depicting 'Jupiter with Ganymede', 'Jupiter with Leda' and other mythological scenes, above a putto and further foliate scrolls, the lower panel with a torch and quiver, alternating with floral scrolls, within a simulated stiff-leaf border, restorations to paint
66½ in. (169 cm.) high, 22 in. (56 cm.) wide, each panel

Lot Essay

These delicately painted panels, with elegant arabesque designs centring medallions painted in imitation of jasperware, exemplify the goût étrusque of the 1780's, which was promoted by influential designers such as Jean-Demosthène Dugourc.

A number of interiors are recorded from this period with panels which display similar combinations of scrolling rinceau foliage, female caryatids, delicate garlands of flowers and 'jasperware' medallions. The goût étrusque was also referred to as a 'Turkish' style, and a number of similar panels were supplied to the celebrated 'cabinet turc' created for Louis XVI's younger brother, the comte d'Artois at Versailles, designed by his favourite architect François-Joseph Belanger, and painted by Dusseaux. Several of these panels are now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (see D. Alcouffe et al., La Folie d'Artois, Paris, 1988, pp. 86-92).

Other related panels include those of the salon in the Hôtel Hosten, created in 1793 by the architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (discussed at length in B. Pons, French Period Rooms,Dijon, 1995, 396-410), and the celebrated salon of the Hôtel Grimod de la Reynière, created around 1780 by the architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau with painted panels by Lavallée-Poussin, which was recorded in a series of drawings by the Polish architect Kamsetzer during a visit to Paris in 1782 (see T. Dell et al., The Dodge Collection, New York, 1996, p. 135).

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