Lot Essay
Georges Jacob, maître in 1765
This elegant bed was almost certainly designed for the dairy of the château de Méréville by Hubert Robert and executed by Georges Jacob around 1786. Its form and decoration are closely related to another suite of furniture created by Robert and Jacob in 1785 for the dairy at the château de Rambouillet. That suite, executed in solid mahogany, included chairs, armchairs, folding stools and tables all designed in the fashionable goût étrusque of the 1780s. This style was strongly influenced by ancient Roman forms discovered as a result of excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum in the second half of the 18th century. The taste for objects à l'antique and à l'étrusque was promoted by numerous sophisticated collectors and artists who, having visited the excavation sites, brought with them an unprecedented enthusiasm for ancient art and objects. Artists such as Charles-Louis Clérisseau, Jacques-Louis David, Antonio Canova, architects such as François Joseph Belanger, writers like Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and Sir William Hamilton, whose great collection of ancient vases was termed Etruscan, contributed to the interest for ancient culture. Furniture was Etruscan whether it was inspired by ancient Rome or Greece, and the term was used as freely to simply signify objects à l'antique. Georges Jacob was one of the first furniture makers to boldly borrow from ancient examples. The sophisticated and innovative forms of his seat furniture was often conceived under the informed guidance of Jacques-Louis David or, as in the case of the bed offered here, Hubert Robert.
JEAN JOSEPH DE LABORDE
Jean Joseph de Laborde, marquis de Méréville (1724-1794), acquired his wealth through trading, especially on the African coast and at Santo Domingo. Enobled in 1756, he first bore the title of marquis de Laborde and then in 1785 marquis de Méréville. In 1760 he married Rosalie Claire de Nettine, daughter of a banker from the Netherlands. As a fermier général from 1759 to 1768 and a Court banker from 1759, Laborde had close ties with both the duc de Choiseul and Cobenzl, the representative of Empress Marie-Thérèse in Brussels. As the brother-in-law of Madame Lalive de Jully he was also at the epicenter of the most forward artistic trends.
In 1783 the marquis moved into a hôtel on rue d'Artois. After selling much of the old furniture and works of art at auction, he furnished the house in the newest style with the help of the fashionable marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. During a visit to Paris, Horace Walpole commented on Laborde's lavish life style: 'Yesterday I dined at the house of Laborde, the great banker of the Court. My God, how many of our London houses seem small and miserable next to this one! All the rooms are filled with more than they can hold, with granite tables, porhyry urns, bronzes, statues, vases...'
THE CHÂTEAU DE MÉRÉVILLE
The château de Méréville was purchased by the Laborde in 1784. Its subsequent decoration and furnishing cost him the extravagant sum of 14 million livres. Méréville was first restored by the architect François-Joseph Belanger (1744-1818) who had also worked at the Bagatelle. In 1786, Laborde hired Hubert Robert to orchestrate the layout of the gardens and design a dairy (it was not completed at the death of the marquis). He also executed a number of paintings which could still be seen on the walls in the 19th century and are now in the Art Institute of Chicago. Robert's work at Méréville follows his successful Royal commissions for gardens around the 'Bains de Apollon' at Versailles in 1776, and the dairy at Rambouillet in 1785. Méréville was also adorned with paintings by Joseph Vernet, portraits by Jean-Baptiste Greuze as well as furniture by Bernard, Boulard, Langlois and Leleu. Two meubles d'appui by Adam Weisweiler and supplied by Daguerre to Laborde are in the Wallace Collection, London (illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, Catalogue, 1956, fig. 12).
The marquis occupied his Parisian hôtel until the beginning of the Revolution when he withdrew from Paris to Méréville. He lived there until 1794 when he was condemned and met his unfortunate end on the guillotine. Madame de Laborde abandoned the hôtel and her possessions were seized by the Revolutionary Tribune and dispersed amongst various store-houses. Fortunately they were reassembled at the garde meuble and granted back to her in 1796. It was at that moment that this bed was described in an inventory recording the restitution of her goods:
'INSERT INVENTORY DESCRIPTION'
HUBERT ROBERT
Hubert Robert (1733-1808), 'Robert des Ruines' was best known as a painter of great monuments of Rome and fanciful renditions of ruins within landscapes. Less well known were his activities as a curator for the national museum that Louis XVI wanted to create (today it is the Louvre), and as a designer of furniture and gardens. Having lived for many years in Italy at the Académie de France à Rome studying ancient monuments as well as ruins, Robert developed a strong inclination for antique sources which he undoubtedly remembered while designing the present bed. Hubert Robert also executed numerous drawings of interiors, the best known of which are the views of different rooms in the residence of the celebrated patron of the arts and hôtesse, Mme. Geoffrin.
This elegant bed was almost certainly designed for the dairy of the château de Méréville by Hubert Robert and executed by Georges Jacob around 1786. Its form and decoration are closely related to another suite of furniture created by Robert and Jacob in 1785 for the dairy at the château de Rambouillet. That suite, executed in solid mahogany, included chairs, armchairs, folding stools and tables all designed in the fashionable goût étrusque of the 1780s. This style was strongly influenced by ancient Roman forms discovered as a result of excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum in the second half of the 18th century. The taste for objects à l'antique and à l'étrusque was promoted by numerous sophisticated collectors and artists who, having visited the excavation sites, brought with them an unprecedented enthusiasm for ancient art and objects. Artists such as Charles-Louis Clérisseau, Jacques-Louis David, Antonio Canova, architects such as François Joseph Belanger, writers like Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and Sir William Hamilton, whose great collection of ancient vases was termed Etruscan, contributed to the interest for ancient culture. Furniture was Etruscan whether it was inspired by ancient Rome or Greece, and the term was used as freely to simply signify objects à l'antique. Georges Jacob was one of the first furniture makers to boldly borrow from ancient examples. The sophisticated and innovative forms of his seat furniture was often conceived under the informed guidance of Jacques-Louis David or, as in the case of the bed offered here, Hubert Robert.
JEAN JOSEPH DE LABORDE
Jean Joseph de Laborde, marquis de Méréville (1724-1794), acquired his wealth through trading, especially on the African coast and at Santo Domingo. Enobled in 1756, he first bore the title of marquis de Laborde and then in 1785 marquis de Méréville. In 1760 he married Rosalie Claire de Nettine, daughter of a banker from the Netherlands. As a fermier général from 1759 to 1768 and a Court banker from 1759, Laborde had close ties with both the duc de Choiseul and Cobenzl, the representative of Empress Marie-Thérèse in Brussels. As the brother-in-law of Madame Lalive de Jully he was also at the epicenter of the most forward artistic trends.
In 1783 the marquis moved into a hôtel on rue d'Artois. After selling much of the old furniture and works of art at auction, he furnished the house in the newest style with the help of the fashionable marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. During a visit to Paris, Horace Walpole commented on Laborde's lavish life style: 'Yesterday I dined at the house of Laborde, the great banker of the Court. My God, how many of our London houses seem small and miserable next to this one! All the rooms are filled with more than they can hold, with granite tables, porhyry urns, bronzes, statues, vases...'
THE CHÂTEAU DE MÉRÉVILLE
The château de Méréville was purchased by the Laborde in 1784. Its subsequent decoration and furnishing cost him the extravagant sum of 14 million livres. Méréville was first restored by the architect François-Joseph Belanger (1744-1818) who had also worked at the Bagatelle. In 1786, Laborde hired Hubert Robert to orchestrate the layout of the gardens and design a dairy (it was not completed at the death of the marquis). He also executed a number of paintings which could still be seen on the walls in the 19th century and are now in the Art Institute of Chicago. Robert's work at Méréville follows his successful Royal commissions for gardens around the 'Bains de Apollon' at Versailles in 1776, and the dairy at Rambouillet in 1785. Méréville was also adorned with paintings by Joseph Vernet, portraits by Jean-Baptiste Greuze as well as furniture by Bernard, Boulard, Langlois and Leleu. Two meubles d'appui by Adam Weisweiler and supplied by Daguerre to Laborde are in the Wallace Collection, London (illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, Catalogue, 1956, fig. 12).
The marquis occupied his Parisian hôtel until the beginning of the Revolution when he withdrew from Paris to Méréville. He lived there until 1794 when he was condemned and met his unfortunate end on the guillotine. Madame de Laborde abandoned the hôtel and her possessions were seized by the Revolutionary Tribune and dispersed amongst various store-houses. Fortunately they were reassembled at the garde meuble and granted back to her in 1796. It was at that moment that this bed was described in an inventory recording the restitution of her goods:
'INSERT INVENTORY DESCRIPTION'
HUBERT ROBERT
Hubert Robert (1733-1808), 'Robert des Ruines' was best known as a painter of great monuments of Rome and fanciful renditions of ruins within landscapes. Less well known were his activities as a curator for the national museum that Louis XVI wanted to create (today it is the Louvre), and as a designer of furniture and gardens. Having lived for many years in Italy at the Académie de France à Rome studying ancient monuments as well as ruins, Robert developed a strong inclination for antique sources which he undoubtedly remembered while designing the present bed. Hubert Robert also executed numerous drawings of interiors, the best known of which are the views of different rooms in the residence of the celebrated patron of the arts and hôtesse, Mme. Geoffrin.