Lot Essay
These impressive wall lights, designed in the fashionable goût grecque of the 1760's, almost certainly formed part of an important scheme to redecorate the Royal Palace of Warsaw, for the newly elected king of Poland, Stanislaus II, between 1764 and 1768. Stanislaus Poniatowski (1732-1798), who named himself August after his election as king, came from a powerful family with influential Russian connections through his uncle, a Czartoryscy, which was instrumental in enabling him to assume a throne not his by birthright. Culturally, however, he was a committed Francophile, and had been educated in Paris in 1753-4, where he was introduced to the sophisticated artistic salon surrounding Mme Geoffrin, a celebrated patron of the arts who became an unofficial artistic advisor to Stanislaus for much of the rest of his life. On the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, King Stanislaus correctly anticipated that it would be an excellent time to put together a group of paintings as a nucleus for a National Gallery in Warsaw. He commissioned two art dealers based in London, Noel Desenfans and Peter Bourgeois, to assemble this collection. Five years later Stanislaus fell out with his one time lover and patroness, Catherine the Great of Russia, and she had him deposed. Back in London, the two dealers, landed with the unpaid for collection, determined to found their own study gallery and in 1811 the paintings were bequeathed to Dulwich. In 1817 opened as England's first National Gallery.
Even before his election, Stanislaus decided to remodel the Royal Palace in Warsaw in the fashionable Parisian neo-classical taste known as the goût grecque. Early in 1764 he dispatched Casimir Czempinski, a marchand from Warsaw, as a buying agent to Paris, and their correspondance sheds fascinating light on contemporary patronage and taste, with Czempinski commenting that "dans tous les achats que je fais, je donne la préférence au bel antique, au Grec décidé," (S. Lorentz, "Victor Louis et Varsovie," Reue historique de Bordeaux et du départment de la Gironde, January-March 1958, p. 9). Probably through Mme Geoffrin, Czempinski made two important contacts, Victor Louis (d. 1801), the architect who was engaged by Stanislaus to work on the Royal Palace, and François-Thomas Germain (d. 1791), the celebrated bronzier, who was one of the first goldsmiths to work in the new neo-classical style.
In February 1765, Czempinski purchased some vases "à la grecque" for the Royal throne and the King's bedroom, as well as other gilt-bronze objects. In August 1765, the architect Louis arrived in Warsaw and obviously advised the King on general matters of artistic taste beyond his technical role, as the King commented, "Il m'a rectifié le goût sur plusieurs articles." Several other artisans were employed, including the painter Jean Pillement, and shortly after Louis's arrival and probably through Germain's recommendation, the bronziers Jean-Louis Prieur (d.circa 1785-90) and Philippe Caffieri (d. 1774) are recorded as working at the palace.
According to Lorentz (op. cit., p. 21), Prieur was the principle collaborator with Louis on the interior decoration. A number of his designs survive, notably for a set of six ormolu three-light candelabra with eagle supports (the design dated 1766) of which two remained at the palace until World War II (Przewozna op. cit., p. 556, figs. 6-7). Many items were sent ungilt from Prieur's atelier in Paris to be mercury-gilded in Warsaw, probably a money-saving exercise from the King who in 1773 still owed Prieur for the bulk of his work.
Philippe Caffieri came from a famous family of sculpteurs and bronziers, his father Jacques being perhaps the most celebrated of the rococo period, while he himself held the title of sculpteur et ciseleur ordinaire du Roy. Before working at Warsaw, he had already supplied the mounts for one of the earliest ensembles of furniture in a fully fledged neo-classical style for Lalive de Jully (c. 1756-7), as well as chenets for another famous connoisseur, the marquis de Marigny. Two sets of wall lights supplied by Caffieri are mentioned in contemporary inventories: one set of twelve pairs with patinated bronze surmounts is described in 1770 as:
"Douze paires de Bras a trois branches d'un tres beau modele sur lequel il y a des Vases couleur de bronze brune..."
Przewozna illustrates Caffieri's drawing for this model dated 1768, inscribed invante et execute par P. Caffiery Sculpteur et Ziseleur du Roy A Paris 1768, and among other inscriptions, Dessein de Bras de Bronze pour le Chateau a trois Bobeches (ibid., pp. 557-8, fig. 10). Nine single wall lights of this model survive at the Palace.
The offered lot can be identified in the 1770 inventory as follows:
Douze autres paires des Bras moins grands a trois branches avec des vases dore, ils sont tres bien cisele et dore d'ormoulu. Six paires de ces bras sont dans la Chambre de Marbre quatre dans la Chambre de Seigneurs pres de la Chapelle et deux chez M.J. Mniszek."
In a letter to the King dated 19 March 1768, Caffieri mentions, "Plus sept autres paires de bras, moins grand aussi à trois branches pour appareiller ceux que vous avez, que vous m'avez ordonné, prix convenu à 830 livres la paire montant ensemble à 5910," implying that the first five pairs of this set had already been delivered. The Chambre de Marbre mentioned in the inventory was one of the rooms renovated by Jakub Fontana, an architect employed by Stanislaus after a fire damaged much of Louis's original work in 1769. In a 1795 inventory, seven pairs from the set from the Chambre de Marbre were in storage, while the remaining five pairs were in the renamed Canaletto rooms, formerly the Chambre de Seigneurs.
Although no drawing exists for this model, its closeness in design to the other set, with the distinctive combination of husk swags and the classical urn finial, offers strong evidence that this too was a Caffieri design. Notably, that the central arm is quite distinct in detailing from the outer two and appears in effect to grow out of the torch-like central shaft, which is bound by palm-wrapped ribbons and terminates in a Bacchic thyrsus finial. The floral festoons draping the krater-vase finial are an especially rich detail and relate to festooned urns featuring in two designs for console tables, both dated 1766, one attributed to Louis and one to Prieur, illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, figs. 407 & 409.
Three pairs of this model remain at the Palace, of which one pair is a later copy, while a pair almost certainly from the same set was sold from the Geoffroy collection, Ader-Picard-Tajan, Paris, 2 December 1971. Another pair of this model were sold in these Rooms, 1 November 1990, lot 64A, and another set of four were with Partridge Fine Arts, London and illustrated in their Recent Acquisitions 1992, no. 25. Intriguingly, a letter from Baguès to du Pont of 11 September 1931, following his purchase of the wall lights, indicates that "the Brackets have been in the same family for more than a century," split between "a well known Chateau of the Loire and a residence on the Boulevard St. Germain." However, running into financial difficulties, the family sold them to two different dealers from whom Baguès acquired them. Du Pont appears to have seen them in Paris for Bagués made arrangements to have them shipped to their New York showroom and then on to Winterthur where they were placed in the White Parlor.
Even before his election, Stanislaus decided to remodel the Royal Palace in Warsaw in the fashionable Parisian neo-classical taste known as the goût grecque. Early in 1764 he dispatched Casimir Czempinski, a marchand from Warsaw, as a buying agent to Paris, and their correspondance sheds fascinating light on contemporary patronage and taste, with Czempinski commenting that "dans tous les achats que je fais, je donne la préférence au bel antique, au Grec décidé," (S. Lorentz, "Victor Louis et Varsovie," Reue historique de Bordeaux et du départment de la Gironde, January-March 1958, p. 9). Probably through Mme Geoffrin, Czempinski made two important contacts, Victor Louis (d. 1801), the architect who was engaged by Stanislaus to work on the Royal Palace, and François-Thomas Germain (d. 1791), the celebrated bronzier, who was one of the first goldsmiths to work in the new neo-classical style.
In February 1765, Czempinski purchased some vases "à la grecque" for the Royal throne and the King's bedroom, as well as other gilt-bronze objects. In August 1765, the architect Louis arrived in Warsaw and obviously advised the King on general matters of artistic taste beyond his technical role, as the King commented, "Il m'a rectifié le goût sur plusieurs articles." Several other artisans were employed, including the painter Jean Pillement, and shortly after Louis's arrival and probably through Germain's recommendation, the bronziers Jean-Louis Prieur (d.circa 1785-90) and Philippe Caffieri (d. 1774) are recorded as working at the palace.
According to Lorentz (op. cit., p. 21), Prieur was the principle collaborator with Louis on the interior decoration. A number of his designs survive, notably for a set of six ormolu three-light candelabra with eagle supports (the design dated 1766) of which two remained at the palace until World War II (Przewozna op. cit., p. 556, figs. 6-7). Many items were sent ungilt from Prieur's atelier in Paris to be mercury-gilded in Warsaw, probably a money-saving exercise from the King who in 1773 still owed Prieur for the bulk of his work.
Philippe Caffieri came from a famous family of sculpteurs and bronziers, his father Jacques being perhaps the most celebrated of the rococo period, while he himself held the title of sculpteur et ciseleur ordinaire du Roy. Before working at Warsaw, he had already supplied the mounts for one of the earliest ensembles of furniture in a fully fledged neo-classical style for Lalive de Jully (c. 1756-7), as well as chenets for another famous connoisseur, the marquis de Marigny. Two sets of wall lights supplied by Caffieri are mentioned in contemporary inventories: one set of twelve pairs with patinated bronze surmounts is described in 1770 as:
"Douze paires de Bras a trois branches d'un tres beau modele sur lequel il y a des Vases couleur de bronze brune..."
Przewozna illustrates Caffieri's drawing for this model dated 1768, inscribed invante et execute par P. Caffiery Sculpteur et Ziseleur du Roy A Paris 1768, and among other inscriptions, Dessein de Bras de Bronze pour le Chateau a trois Bobeches (ibid., pp. 557-8, fig. 10). Nine single wall lights of this model survive at the Palace.
The offered lot can be identified in the 1770 inventory as follows:
Douze autres paires des Bras moins grands a trois branches avec des vases dore, ils sont tres bien cisele et dore d'ormoulu. Six paires de ces bras sont dans la Chambre de Marbre quatre dans la Chambre de Seigneurs pres de la Chapelle et deux chez M.J. Mniszek."
In a letter to the King dated 19 March 1768, Caffieri mentions, "Plus sept autres paires de bras, moins grand aussi à trois branches pour appareiller ceux que vous avez, que vous m'avez ordonné, prix convenu à 830 livres la paire montant ensemble à 5910," implying that the first five pairs of this set had already been delivered. The Chambre de Marbre mentioned in the inventory was one of the rooms renovated by Jakub Fontana, an architect employed by Stanislaus after a fire damaged much of Louis's original work in 1769. In a 1795 inventory, seven pairs from the set from the Chambre de Marbre were in storage, while the remaining five pairs were in the renamed Canaletto rooms, formerly the Chambre de Seigneurs.
Although no drawing exists for this model, its closeness in design to the other set, with the distinctive combination of husk swags and the classical urn finial, offers strong evidence that this too was a Caffieri design. Notably, that the central arm is quite distinct in detailing from the outer two and appears in effect to grow out of the torch-like central shaft, which is bound by palm-wrapped ribbons and terminates in a Bacchic thyrsus finial. The floral festoons draping the krater-vase finial are an especially rich detail and relate to festooned urns featuring in two designs for console tables, both dated 1766, one attributed to Louis and one to Prieur, illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, figs. 407 & 409.
Three pairs of this model remain at the Palace, of which one pair is a later copy, while a pair almost certainly from the same set was sold from the Geoffroy collection, Ader-Picard-Tajan, Paris, 2 December 1971. Another pair of this model were sold in these Rooms, 1 November 1990, lot 64A, and another set of four were with Partridge Fine Arts, London and illustrated in their Recent Acquisitions 1992, no. 25. Intriguingly, a letter from Baguès to du Pont of 11 September 1931, following his purchase of the wall lights, indicates that "the Brackets have been in the same family for more than a century," split between "a well known Chateau of the Loire and a residence on the Boulevard St. Germain." However, running into financial difficulties, the family sold them to two different dealers from whom Baguès acquired them. Du Pont appears to have seen them in Paris for Bagués made arrangements to have them shipped to their New York showroom and then on to Winterthur where they were placed in the White Parlor.