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Lot Essay
Louis Delanois, maître in 1761.
With its unusual and bold avant-garde neoclassical design, this chair is a rare survival of the fabled furnishings of Madame du Barry (1743-1794), Louis XV’s last mistress, placed in her beloved château de Louveciennes. It later formed part of the extraordinary collection Arturo López Willshaw (1900-1962) who commissioned its accompanying chaise.
The chair is precisely described in a mémoire (invoice) dated 1770 from the peintre-doreur Cagny who, last in the producing process, supplied the chairs to the comtesse:
Galerie- 19 chaises très riches, reparées, adoucies et couche de teinte en blanc de plomb. Détail d’une : le dossier profilé de moulures d’architecture, de 2 baguettes, 4 carrés, gorge, carderon, demi-rond et plate-bande, lesdites moulures ornées de piastres sur le demi-rond, 1 osier sur la baguette et perles figurant le clou ; une agrafe au milieu des parties ceintrées, balustres en volute, feuilles de refend, bande de fleurs sur chaque montant ; un petit champignon en feuilles de soleil, le tout très riche, des fleurons refendus en feuilles d’acanthe ; la ceinture profilée idem et ornée d’une branche de jasmins en bas-relief, (ou) verts et boutons ; feuilles d’eau sur la doucine et perles sur la baguette figurant le clou ; 4 pieds en gaine, la case garnie d’une rosace en trèfle avec fleuron par le bas des pieds, estimée 125 livres (réglée à 96). Les 18 autres chaises en tout pareilles ; 2256 livre (réglées à 1728).
This very precise description mentions in minute detail the intricate carving, including the piastres (frieze of antique coins motif), garlands and jasmine frieze of the seat rail. These were delivered en suite with twelve fauteuils now lost.
This set was supplied for the Galerie of the château where they were still described in the Revolutionary inventory made in March 1793.
LOUVECIENNES
First occupied by the comtesse de Toulouse (1688-1766) and then by her son the duc de Penthièvre (1725-1793), the château of Louveciennes was subsequently offered to the new favourite, Madame du Barry, on the 24 July 1769. Immediately after, du Barry commissioned a restoration by the architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel, the great exponent of the neoclassical style who extended the rather modest house and designed the new wall panelling in a few rooms such as the dining room . But the dwelling remained small, therefore the châtelaine turned to Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, then largely unknown, and asked him to design a supplementary pavilion to receive the King, conceived in the purest antique form. At Christmas 1770, the plans proposed by the architect Ledoux were agreed, and the construction of the pavillon dedicated to love started above the valley of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the famous machine de Marly. It was during this period that Madame du Barry commissioned most of the luxurious furniture for both the château and pavillon including the gueridon by Martin Carlin with Sèvres porcelain plaques now in the Louvre (in. num. OA 10658) and the extensive sets of seat furniture by Louis Delanois, carved by J.N. Guichard with painted and gilded decorationby J.B. Cagny.
Apart from this chair, only a few examples from these sets have survived:
A pair of fauteuils supplied in 1771 to the salon of the château de Louveciennes, subsequently in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild (illustrated in 'Madame du Barry, De Versailles à Louveciennes', Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, 1992, p. 56.) a pair of chairs supplied to the Salon du roi of Madame du Barry's pavillon at Louveciennes in 1771, subsequently in the collections of Madame de Polès and Arturo Lopez, sold at Christie’s, London, 12 December 2002, lot 15, a fire screen made for the salon carré of the pavillon de Louveciennes, 1770-71, now in the musée du Louvre (OA10219).
MADAME DU BARRY
Born Jeanne Bécu in 1746 to a modest woman living in Vaucouleurs, Madame du Barry caused a sensation in France and Europe by becoming the last mistress of Louis XV. Apprenticed in a milliner's shop, her considerable beauty attracted the attention of the Parisian beau-monde and, eventually, the adventurer and professional gambler Jean du Barry. Du Barry brought her to the attention of the ageing King, who had been without an official mistress since the death of the Marquise de Pompadour in 1764.
Louis XV became instantly besotted with the 22 year-old and was determined to install her as his maîtresse en titre at Versailles. In order to accomplish this, she was married to du Barry's older brother, comte Guillaume du Barry, who was paid off handsomely, and she was finally presented at Court on 22 April 1769. Falsely maligned for interfering in affairs of State, she rapidly became one of the most important patrons of the arts in the 1770s, making significant purchases of sumptuous porcelain-mounted furniture from the marchand-mercier Poirier, both for her appartements at Versailles and her pavilion at Louveciennes. After Louis XV's death in 1774, his grandson, Louis XVI obliged Madame du Barry to retire to Louveciennes, where she lived relatively quietly until her emigration to England and subsequent arrest on her return to Louveciennes and eventual execution at the hands of the Revolutionary government on 7 December 1793.
LOUIS DELANOIS
Louis Delanois was one of the most important menuisiers of the 1760s and 1770s, and was among the first to embrace the neo-classical style fashionable among avant-garde collectors of the time. His experimental style was developed under the influence of ornemanistes such as Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734-89) who might have provided designs for the present chairs.
He supplied extensively to marchands-tapissiers, but also numbered among his clients members of the aristocracy with progressive taste, such as the prince de Condé or the comte Grimod d'Orsay. One of his most important commissions apart from those to Madame du Barry, was for the King of Poland in 1768-70, to whom he supplied a significant amount of seat-furniture after striking neo-classical designs by Jean-Louis Prieur (c.1725-c.1785). These included designs for chairs with medallion backs and scrolling arm-supports. These so-called 'Fauteuils oval sculpté à la Grec' first appear in Delanois’ ledger on 28 June 1768, when a large consignment was supplied to the Comte Grimod d'Orsay (S. Eriksen, Louis Delanois, Paris, 1968, p. 32 and p. 52 and S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, p. 337 and p. 392, fig. 165 and figs. 411-414). However, Madame du Barry remained his most important patron, furnishing not only her two residences in Louveciennes but also seat furniture pieces for the Salon de compagnie in her apartment in Versailles, where chairs from the set are currently displayed.
With its unusual and bold avant-garde neoclassical design, this chair is a rare survival of the fabled furnishings of Madame du Barry (1743-1794), Louis XV’s last mistress, placed in her beloved château de Louveciennes. It later formed part of the extraordinary collection Arturo López Willshaw (1900-1962) who commissioned its accompanying chaise.
The chair is precisely described in a mémoire (invoice) dated 1770 from the peintre-doreur Cagny who, last in the producing process, supplied the chairs to the comtesse:
Galerie- 19 chaises très riches, reparées, adoucies et couche de teinte en blanc de plomb. Détail d’une : le dossier profilé de moulures d’architecture, de 2 baguettes, 4 carrés, gorge, carderon, demi-rond et plate-bande, lesdites moulures ornées de piastres sur le demi-rond, 1 osier sur la baguette et perles figurant le clou ; une agrafe au milieu des parties ceintrées, balustres en volute, feuilles de refend, bande de fleurs sur chaque montant ; un petit champignon en feuilles de soleil, le tout très riche, des fleurons refendus en feuilles d’acanthe ; la ceinture profilée idem et ornée d’une branche de jasmins en bas-relief, (ou) verts et boutons ; feuilles d’eau sur la doucine et perles sur la baguette figurant le clou ; 4 pieds en gaine, la case garnie d’une rosace en trèfle avec fleuron par le bas des pieds, estimée 125 livres (réglée à 96). Les 18 autres chaises en tout pareilles ; 2256 livre (réglées à 1728).
This very precise description mentions in minute detail the intricate carving, including the piastres (frieze of antique coins motif), garlands and jasmine frieze of the seat rail. These were delivered en suite with twelve fauteuils now lost.
This set was supplied for the Galerie of the château where they were still described in the Revolutionary inventory made in March 1793.
LOUVECIENNES
First occupied by the comtesse de Toulouse (1688-1766) and then by her son the duc de Penthièvre (1725-1793), the château of Louveciennes was subsequently offered to the new favourite, Madame du Barry, on the 24 July 1769. Immediately after, du Barry commissioned a restoration by the architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel, the great exponent of the neoclassical style who extended the rather modest house and designed the new wall panelling in a few rooms such as the dining room . But the dwelling remained small, therefore the châtelaine turned to Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, then largely unknown, and asked him to design a supplementary pavilion to receive the King, conceived in the purest antique form. At Christmas 1770, the plans proposed by the architect Ledoux were agreed, and the construction of the pavillon dedicated to love started above the valley of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the famous machine de Marly. It was during this period that Madame du Barry commissioned most of the luxurious furniture for both the château and pavillon including the gueridon by Martin Carlin with Sèvres porcelain plaques now in the Louvre (in. num. OA 10658) and the extensive sets of seat furniture by Louis Delanois, carved by J.N. Guichard with painted and gilded decorationby J.B. Cagny.
Apart from this chair, only a few examples from these sets have survived:
A pair of fauteuils supplied in 1771 to the salon of the château de Louveciennes, subsequently in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild (illustrated in 'Madame du Barry, De Versailles à Louveciennes', Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, 1992, p. 56.) a pair of chairs supplied to the Salon du roi of Madame du Barry's pavillon at Louveciennes in 1771, subsequently in the collections of Madame de Polès and Arturo Lopez, sold at Christie’s, London, 12 December 2002, lot 15, a fire screen made for the salon carré of the pavillon de Louveciennes, 1770-71, now in the musée du Louvre (OA10219).
MADAME DU BARRY
Born Jeanne Bécu in 1746 to a modest woman living in Vaucouleurs, Madame du Barry caused a sensation in France and Europe by becoming the last mistress of Louis XV. Apprenticed in a milliner's shop, her considerable beauty attracted the attention of the Parisian beau-monde and, eventually, the adventurer and professional gambler Jean du Barry. Du Barry brought her to the attention of the ageing King, who had been without an official mistress since the death of the Marquise de Pompadour in 1764.
Louis XV became instantly besotted with the 22 year-old and was determined to install her as his maîtresse en titre at Versailles. In order to accomplish this, she was married to du Barry's older brother, comte Guillaume du Barry, who was paid off handsomely, and she was finally presented at Court on 22 April 1769. Falsely maligned for interfering in affairs of State, she rapidly became one of the most important patrons of the arts in the 1770s, making significant purchases of sumptuous porcelain-mounted furniture from the marchand-mercier Poirier, both for her appartements at Versailles and her pavilion at Louveciennes. After Louis XV's death in 1774, his grandson, Louis XVI obliged Madame du Barry to retire to Louveciennes, where she lived relatively quietly until her emigration to England and subsequent arrest on her return to Louveciennes and eventual execution at the hands of the Revolutionary government on 7 December 1793.
LOUIS DELANOIS
Louis Delanois was one of the most important menuisiers of the 1760s and 1770s, and was among the first to embrace the neo-classical style fashionable among avant-garde collectors of the time. His experimental style was developed under the influence of ornemanistes such as Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734-89) who might have provided designs for the present chairs.
He supplied extensively to marchands-tapissiers, but also numbered among his clients members of the aristocracy with progressive taste, such as the prince de Condé or the comte Grimod d'Orsay. One of his most important commissions apart from those to Madame du Barry, was for the King of Poland in 1768-70, to whom he supplied a significant amount of seat-furniture after striking neo-classical designs by Jean-Louis Prieur (c.1725-c.1785). These included designs for chairs with medallion backs and scrolling arm-supports. These so-called 'Fauteuils oval sculpté à la Grec' first appear in Delanois’ ledger on 28 June 1768, when a large consignment was supplied to the Comte Grimod d'Orsay (S. Eriksen, Louis Delanois, Paris, 1968, p. 32 and p. 52 and S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, p. 337 and p. 392, fig. 165 and figs. 411-414). However, Madame du Barry remained his most important patron, furnishing not only her two residences in Louveciennes but also seat furniture pieces for the Salon de compagnie in her apartment in Versailles, where chairs from the set are currently displayed.