ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE-ANTOINE BELLANGE, CIRCA 1810

These chairs bear inventory marks for the Château de Fontainbleau and were almost certainly commissioned as part of Napoleon I's restoration of the palace. In Paul Delaroche's famous painting of Napoleon's abdication in March 1814, Napoleon is depicted at the Château de Fontainbleau seated in a gilt chair of exactly this model. Further markings to the chairs suggest that they passed back to the crown following the restoration of the monarchy and may have subsequently been moved to the Château de Compiègne. A closely related suite of stamped seat furniture by Belangé was recorded in the 1832 inventory of the château and remains in the collection there today, see S. Cordier Op. Cit. p. 417/PAB 26.

Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (1758-1827), maître in 1788, was one of the most important fournisseurs to the court of Emperor Napoleon I, supplying important suites of mobilier for many of the Imperial palaces, including Château Saint Cloud and the Tuileries. Following the Restoration of the monarchy demand continued for his stylistically bold work and he was made ébéniste breveté du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. In 1821 his work was praised for "La qualité, la richesse et la grâce des objets debénisterie" while one of his most important commissions from that period was for the château de Saint-Ouen of for the Comtesse de Cayla, maîtresse en titre of Louis XVIII.