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Lot Essay
This fauteuil is a striking example of seat furniture executed in the most avant-garde taste late in the reign of Louis XVI. It was delivered circa 1790 to Jean-Joseph Payen at the hôtel de Marbeuf, the residence of one of Paris’s wealthiest and most discerning patrons, the Marquise de Marbeuf.
Jean-Joseph Payen was commissaire de guerre du Roi d’Espagne and the confidant, steward and perhaps lover of Henriette Françoise, Marquise de Marbeuf (1738-1794) daughter of the Director of the Compagnie des Indes. The intimacy between Payen and the Marquise is shown by the order for their arrest: 'Et Jean Joseph Payen, natif d’Avignon, âgé de quarante neuf ans, cultivateur habitant avec la femme Marbœuf dans sa maison de Champs et à Paris rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, en la maison Marbœuf, et jouissant de toute la confiance de la femme Marbœuf.' The Marquise inherited the hôtel de Marbeuf on the rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1788 and initiated a vast renovation, employing the greatest artisans of Paris. Payen rented the ground floor of the hôtel and was in charge of the works: “En 1789 et 1790, époque pendant laquelle tous les travaux étaient suspendus (…) le citoyen Payen (…) se chargea de diriger et de faire exécuter les plans de décorations qui existent dans la maison de la citoyenne Marbeuf et de faire pour son compte particulier celles qui existent dans l'appartement qu'il loue d'elle. Tous les artistes de Paris, dans tous les genres, ont été employés à ces travaux, sans interruption, pendant ces deux années mémorables (…) La plupart des ouvriers ne quittèrent leur atelier que pour aller, par intervalle, attaquer et prendre la Bastille ou donner telle autre preuve de civisme de ce genre”. Payen's improvements for the Marquise extended also to his own apartment and as the label affixed to the seat-rail attests, this fauteuil was commissioned for the salon.
The famous menuisier Georges Jacob was charged with providing the furniture, much of which has survived to the present day, including a suite of Egyptian revival seat furniture with sphinx arm supports offered Christie's, Paris, 21 November 2021, lot 514 and a suite of seat furniture with lioness-head arm supports, some of which was sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie’s, Paris, 15-17 June, lot 185. The present fauteuil is related to a number of Jacob’s works in the 1790s and is typical of the Marquise’s contemporary tastes. A related fauteuil in the Musée Marmottan stamped G JACOB and circa 1792 has a similar ‘antique’ painted toprail, dolphin arm supports and foliate-wrapped legs to this fauteuil. The label on this is also similar to other chairs executed by Jacob’s workshop. Both Jean-Joseph Payen and the marquise were sent to the guillotine within a day of each other in 1794 for treason and the bogus charge of misappropriating harvest for the benefit of the enemies of France at the Marquise’s château de Champs in Champs-sur-Marne. The hôtel de Marbeuf was later purchased by Joseph Bonaparte in 1803.
This fauteuil is a striking example of seat furniture executed in the most avant-garde taste late in the reign of Louis XVI. It was delivered circa 1790 to Jean-Joseph Payen at the hôtel de Marbeuf, the residence of one of Paris’s wealthiest and most discerning patrons, the Marquise de Marbeuf.
Jean-Joseph Payen was commissaire de guerre du Roi d’Espagne and the confidant, steward and perhaps lover of Henriette Françoise, Marquise de Marbeuf (1738-1794) daughter of the Director of the Compagnie des Indes. The intimacy between Payen and the Marquise is shown by the order for their arrest: 'Et Jean Joseph Payen, natif d’Avignon, âgé de quarante neuf ans, cultivateur habitant avec la femme Marbœuf dans sa maison de Champs et à Paris rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, en la maison Marbœuf, et jouissant de toute la confiance de la femme Marbœuf.' The Marquise inherited the hôtel de Marbeuf on the rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1788 and initiated a vast renovation, employing the greatest artisans of Paris. Payen rented the ground floor of the hôtel and was in charge of the works: “En 1789 et 1790, époque pendant laquelle tous les travaux étaient suspendus (…) le citoyen Payen (…) se chargea de diriger et de faire exécuter les plans de décorations qui existent dans la maison de la citoyenne Marbeuf et de faire pour son compte particulier celles qui existent dans l'appartement qu'il loue d'elle. Tous les artistes de Paris, dans tous les genres, ont été employés à ces travaux, sans interruption, pendant ces deux années mémorables (…) La plupart des ouvriers ne quittèrent leur atelier que pour aller, par intervalle, attaquer et prendre la Bastille ou donner telle autre preuve de civisme de ce genre”. Payen's improvements for the Marquise extended also to his own apartment and as the label affixed to the seat-rail attests, this fauteuil was commissioned for the salon.
The famous menuisier Georges Jacob was charged with providing the furniture, much of which has survived to the present day, including a suite of Egyptian revival seat furniture with sphinx arm supports offered Christie's, Paris, 21 November 2021, lot 514 and a suite of seat furniture with lioness-head arm supports, some of which was sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie’s, Paris, 15-17 June, lot 185. The present fauteuil is related to a number of Jacob’s works in the 1790s and is typical of the Marquise’s contemporary tastes. A related fauteuil in the Musée Marmottan stamped G JACOB and circa 1792 has a similar ‘antique’ painted toprail, dolphin arm supports and foliate-wrapped legs to this fauteuil. The label on this is also similar to other chairs executed by Jacob’s workshop. Both Jean-Joseph Payen and the marquise were sent to the guillotine within a day of each other in 1794 for treason and the bogus charge of misappropriating harvest for the benefit of the enemies of France at the Marquise’s château de Champs in Champs-sur-Marne. The hôtel de Marbeuf was later purchased by Joseph Bonaparte in 1803.