Lot Essay
Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené, dit l'ainé, was the son of Claude I Sené. He was received maître in 1769 and in 1785 became Fournisseur de la Couronne
The highly unusual design of this canapé reflects the influence of the design by Richard Lalonde and Jean Delafosse (1734-1791). Lalonde's design (from the 1760's) for un Confident Orné de Sculptures included in the Veme Cahier d'Ameublemens Dessinés par La Londe is obviously in a much more robust early neo-classical style but the central section has the same overall form as the Dodge canapé with similar urn finials. Another pen-and-ink drawing of wall arrangement by Lalonde (dated circa 1780) in the Musée des Art Décoratifs shows a canapé à confidents of related design. Delafosse's designs, first published in 1768 in Nouvelle Iconologie Historique and expanded in stages until 1785, include a number of canapés with Antique urn finials
A pair of fauteuils by Sené undoubtedly from the same suite was sold in the Thelma Chrysler Foy Collection, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, part II, 22 and 23 May 1959, lot 708. They had previously been in the collections of François Guerault and Mme Hélène Dupuy. A particularly grand suite of seat furniture by Sené in the Musée Nissim de Camondo ( Catalogue, no. 198) has many of the same decorative motifs, most strikingly the scrolled volutes at the junction of the back and the arms and exactly the same spirally fluted legs.
The refined carved ornament is rather different from Sené's more typical decorative vocabulary, which suggests a particular commission for a special client. A design (dated circa 1785) by Jean-Démosthène Dugourc for a firescreen for an unknown commission now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs has the same combination of bold yet delicate neo-classical motifs (Musée historique des Tissus, Lyon, Exhibition Catalogue, De Dugourc A Pernon, December 1990-March 1991, p.54, no. 5
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The highly unusual design of this canapé reflects the influence of the design by Richard Lalonde and Jean Delafosse (1734-1791). Lalonde's design (from the 1760's) for un Confident Orné de Sculptures included in the Veme Cahier d'Ameublemens Dessinés par La Londe is obviously in a much more robust early neo-classical style but the central section has the same overall form as the Dodge canapé with similar urn finials. Another pen-and-ink drawing of wall arrangement by Lalonde (dated circa 1780) in the Musée des Art Décoratifs shows a canapé à confidents of related design. Delafosse's designs, first published in 1768 in Nouvelle Iconologie Historique and expanded in stages until 1785, include a number of canapés with Antique urn finials
A pair of fauteuils by Sené undoubtedly from the same suite was sold in the Thelma Chrysler Foy Collection, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, part II, 22 and 23 May 1959, lot 708. They had previously been in the collections of François Guerault and Mme Hélène Dupuy. A particularly grand suite of seat furniture by Sené in the Musée Nissim de Camondo ( Catalogue, no. 198) has many of the same decorative motifs, most strikingly the scrolled volutes at the junction of the back and the arms and exactly the same spirally fluted legs.
The refined carved ornament is rather different from Sené's more typical decorative vocabulary, which suggests a particular commission for a special client. A design (dated circa 1785) by Jean-Démosthène Dugourc for a firescreen for an unknown commission now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs has the same combination of bold yet delicate neo-classical motifs (Musée historique des Tissus, Lyon, Exhibition Catalogue, De Dugourc A Pernon, December 1990-March 1991, p.54, no. 5
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