拍品專文
Claude Séné maître in 1743
(LOTS 343-345)
A SUITE OF LOUIS XV GILTWOOD SEAT FURNITURE BY CLAUDE SÉNÉ WITH CONTEMPORARY BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY UPHOLSTERY DEPICTING SCENES FROM THE FABLES DE LA FONTAINE
Provenance: Mme. J. Patiño de Ortiz Linares, sold Sotheby's Monaco, 8 February 1981, lot 229
Literature: B.G.B. Pallot, L'Art du Siège au XVIIème Siècle en France, 1987, p. 129
Tapestry seat furniture taken from the Fables de la Fontaine was tremendously popular in the 18th century. Numerous scenes were woven in order to "presenter au public des menus meubles d'un goût agreable qui sembler être désirés avec empressement". The most well-known of these series are based on Jean-Baptiste Oudry's cartoons which were delivered to Beauvais in 1737 and were woven in many variations (see E. Standen, Post-Medieval Tapestries in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. II, 1985, pp. 484-498, no. 74). This we find in 1751 and 1752 (about the date of this set) twelve armchairs "du nouveau dessin [of the new Oudry design] pour M. Lalande". Indeed a poshumous inventory of the collections of this rich Breton arms merchant lists "un canapé et dix fauteuils bois doré tapisserie representant sujets de fable".
Sometime before 1770, François Boucher also designed a series of cartoons of the Fables for Beauvais. An inventory for a M. Devin de Gravelle details:
huit fauteuils et un canapé de trois places de bois doré à chasssis couvert de tapisserie de Beauvais, fables d'apres des dessins de Boucher, 1,000 livres
The description could easily refer to this suite.
A number of other suites of seat furniture exist with similar Beauvais tapestry upholstery:
-six fauteuils, a canapé and fire screen at Waddesdon Manor (illustrated in G. de Bellaigue, The James A de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, 1979, vol. II, pp. 590-596, no. 126)
-Twelve fauteuils and two canapés ordered in Paris in April 1754 by Baron Bernstorff with frames by Foliot and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (illustrated in Standen, op.cit.)
-A fauteuil also stamped by Claude Séné from the collection of the duc de Montemart, sold Paris, 10 December 1935, lot 16
-A canapé formerly in the collection of Mrs. Alexander Hamilton Rice now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
-A suite in the Cleveland Museum of Art (John L. Severance Collection), according to Pierre Verlet, from the collections of the Princes of Liechtenstein
-A canapé and eight fauteuils ordered from Beauvais in 1750 for the Infante Don Felipe of Parma and now in the Quirinale Palace, Rome (illustrated in A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Gli Arredi Francese, 1996, p. 154)
-A suite from the collection of Leopold Double, sold Paris, 30 May 1881, lot 406 and subsequently in a private collection in Paris
CLAUDE SÉNÉ (1724-1792)
Claude Séné (maître in 1743) was the second of this famous dynasty of chair-makers. As was often the case with artisans of this period, he was closely allied with other important members of the trade.
On 26 September 1745, he married a sister of Jean-Étienne Saint-Georges who was also married to a daughter of the menusier, Destumel. Séné's two sons, Jean-Baptiste-Claude l'Ainé and Claude II le Jeune each became in their own right well known chair-makers. From 1746 to 1780, Séné worked with his brother-in-law although each maintained their own stamp and production. Séné and Saint-Georges shared a workshop in the rue de Cléry (as did many other menuisiers) and most likely employed the same sculptors. Amongst Séné's many clients was the duc de Montmorency for whom he executed a large commission before 1763.
A SET OF FOUR LOUIS XV GILTWOOD FAUTEUILS À LA REINE
CIRCA 1750, STAMPED C.SENE
細節
A SET OF FOUR LOUIS XV GILTWOOD FAUTEUILS À LA REINE
circa 1750, stamped C.SENE
Each with cartouche-shaped back and seat upholstered à chassis with the original Beauvais tapestry depicting scenes from the Fables de La Fontaine enclosed by floral garlands on a pink ground, the frames and seat-rails carved with asymmetrical scrolls and cabochons on cabriole legs headed by cabochons and with similarly carved toes, the backs carved en reparure with foliage, gilding restored, three chairs with 18th century incised arabic numerals, one chair unmarked (4)
circa 1750, stamped C.SENE
Each with cartouche-shaped back and seat upholstered à chassis with the original Beauvais tapestry depicting scenes from the Fables de La Fontaine enclosed by floral garlands on a pink ground, the frames and seat-rails carved with asymmetrical scrolls and cabochons on cabriole legs headed by cabochons and with similarly carved toes, the backs carved en reparure with foliage, gilding restored, three chairs with 18th century incised arabic numerals, one chair unmarked (4)