Lot Essay
Louis Delanois, maître in 1761.
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SIX CHAIRS SUPPLIED BY LOUIS DELANOIS ON 15 DECEMBER 1769 FOR MADAME DU BARRY'S GRAND CABINET D'ANGLE AT VERSAILLES
(Lots 20-22)
Having confirmed Madame du Barry as his official mistress on 22 April 1769, Louis XV decided to install her at Versailles, in the main section of the Palace, directly above his bedroom and connected to his own appartements. The appartement chosen for her had previously been occupied between September 1766 and 13 March 1767 by the Dauphine de Saxe following the death of her husband. This appartement, which had been enlarged to include the former Petite Galerie des cabinets du Roi, had been empty since the Dauphine's death.
Madame du Barry's appartement was redecorated in haste but lavishly gilt. The furniture was ordered by her personally and paid for out of the generous allowance given her by the King. Decorated in the Parisian taste, for which she became the standard bearer, rather than the court taste which prevailed at Versailles, the appartement was decorated with the most luxurious and fashionable objects available in Paris at the time.
The appartement comprised an antichambre, accessible by a staircase from the cour des cerfs, which connected with the library as well as the Grand Cabinet d'angle. The cabinet opened onto the salon which in turn led to her bedroom. A door to the right of the fireplace in the Grand Cabinet led to the Dining-Room as well as two rooms intended for her toilette and her wardrobe. The Salon de Compagnie (Grand Cabinet d'angle), which had previously served as a salon d'assemblée for Madame de Mailly, a former mistress of Louis XV, 30 years previously, was lit by three windows, of which two looked onto the cour de marbre and one onto the cour royale.
Madame du Barry ordered her chairs from Louis Delanois. She purchased a large lacquer screen from the marchand-mercier Simon Philippe Poirier as well as a Japanese lacquer commode now in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, identified by P. Lemonnier.
Although the designer of the chairs is not known, they relate to a drawing of circa 1770, albeit more archaic in style, by an ornemaniste close to Delafosse which is now at Versailles. It shows the channeled frieze as well as the garlands of flowers or laurel seen on this set.
The menuisier en siège Delanois' livre-journal records a delivery on 15 December 1769 of a canapé for 530 livres as well as a set of 13 armchairs at 1786 livres and
"treize chaises oval en bois de noyer et à pieds cormiers à double chassis, l'épaisseur des pieds de derrière de 3p 1/2, l'épaisseur de devant de 3 po et la largeur du petit dossier et du ceinture 6. A 7 po et d'épaisseur 2 po pour trouver les ornaments à 96 livres pièce".
The total cost of the menuiserie was 1326 livres. To this was added the invoice of the gilder Jean-Baptiste Cagny, who elaborated the highly detailed carving by Joseph-Nicolas Guichard. The set was fitted out with two sets of upholstery, as was the custom of the time for such public rooms, by the tapissier Labitte. The summer upholstery was "satin blanc encadré de verd et brodés en soie". As was the custom in the King's appartements, one taller chair as well as probably "un grand fauteuil à carreaux ovale sans châssis doré were reserved for his use.
Upon the death of the King, the canapés and fauteuils were removed after May 1774 to Madame du Barry's various residences.
Of the original 13 chairs, two others are known:
-One is in the Museé National du Château de Versailles, previously in the Collection of Baron Guy de Rothschild, sold Sotheby's Monaco, 3 December 1994, lot 70, along with a later copy.
-The other is in a private collection, illustrated in 'Madame du Barry, De Versailles à Louveciennes', Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, 1992, p. 36.
Madame du Barry
Born Jeanne Bécu in 1746 to a poor 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.
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 1770's, 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 arrest and eventual execution at the hands of the Revolutionary government on 7 December 1793.
A PAIR OF ROYAL LATE LOUIS XV GREY-PAINTED CHAISES
CIRCA 1769, ONE STAMPED L. DELANOIS TWICE AND INCISED I AND INSCRIBED III, THE OTHER STAMPED L. DELANOIS ONCE, INCISED II AND INSCRIBED I
Details
A PAIR OF ROYAL LATE LOUIS XV GREY-PAINTED CHAISES
Circa 1769, one stamped L. DELANOIS twice and incised I and inscribed III, the other stamped L. DELANOIS once, incised II and inscribed I
Upholstered à chassis with lime-green watered silk, each with oval padded back carved with a pearled border, berried laurel and ribbons and beads, the compass seat with pearled border above a flowered guilloche frieze, on rosette-headed turned tapering legs headed by stiff-leaves, on toupie feet, with incised Roman numerals, in solid walnut, with typed collection label Collection André Meyer New York 1970 and E6E and E6F (2)
Circa 1769, one stamped L. DELANOIS twice and incised I and inscribed III, the other stamped L. DELANOIS once, incised II and inscribed I
Upholstered à chassis with lime-green watered silk, each with oval padded back carved with a pearled border, berried laurel and ribbons and beads, the compass seat with pearled border above a flowered guilloche frieze, on rosette-headed turned tapering legs headed by stiff-leaves, on toupie feet, with incised Roman numerals, in solid walnut, with typed collection label Collection André Meyer New York 1970 and E6E and E6F (2)