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拍品專文
This plate is from the service which was given to the portrait painter Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) by King Charles X of France, on 11 November 1825, as a gesture of gratitude for Lawrence's completion of portraits of the King and his son the Dauphin. The portraits were commissioned by King George IV in 1825 and Lawrence travelled to the Tuileries Palace to begin work that same year. Sir Thomas Lawrence was arguably the most successful portrait painter of the Romantic age. He was appointed Court Painter to the King of England in 1792 and president of the Royal Academy in 1820.
The service was a refined and expensive gift, selected from the factory directly by Charles X. It was the second service planned in 1824 and the Sèvres factory archives credit ledgers, which indicate that the Vicomte de La Rochefoucauld (who was responsible for the Département des Beaux-Arts) gave the order for the gift on 14 October 1825.1 Here the service decoration is referred to as ‘Marli bleu, frizes en rezeau or et platine. Riches Bouquets de fleurs dans le milieu. Le tout conforme au dessin’. These documents include drawings for the ground colour and gilding pattern. The present plate is one of 72 (of an intended 75) in the delivery that comprised a service of some 95 pieces. Each plate cost 60 livres, with the total cost of the service recorded at 8,100 livres. Most of the service pieces were painted by the talented flower painter Gilbert Drouet in 1824-25 and gilded by Antonine-Gabriel Boullemier (known as Boullemier jeune). Lawrence was hugely appreciative and proud of the service gift. He left instructions in his will that the service, which he ‘had the honour to receive from that Monarch as a mark of his distinguished favour, a superb service of Sèvres porcelain’, was to be left to the Royal Academy, with the express wish that it should be used on the King’s birthday and on other public occasions. In the event, Lawrence’s estate was saddled with such debt that the executors wrote to the Academicians asking them to purchase the service instead. The request was declined and what remained of the service was eventually sold at Christie’s, London, on 5 July 1834, along with most of Lawrence’s possessions.
1. Rochefoucauld’s presentation letter to Lawrence was accompanied by an unpriced factory invoice listing the pieces. Both letter and invoice are held with Lawrence’s papers at the Royal Academy.
The service was a refined and expensive gift, selected from the factory directly by Charles X. It was the second service planned in 1824 and the Sèvres factory archives credit ledgers, which indicate that the Vicomte de La Rochefoucauld (who was responsible for the Département des Beaux-Arts) gave the order for the gift on 14 October 1825.1 Here the service decoration is referred to as ‘Marli bleu, frizes en rezeau or et platine. Riches Bouquets de fleurs dans le milieu. Le tout conforme au dessin’. These documents include drawings for the ground colour and gilding pattern. The present plate is one of 72 (of an intended 75) in the delivery that comprised a service of some 95 pieces. Each plate cost 60 livres, with the total cost of the service recorded at 8,100 livres. Most of the service pieces were painted by the talented flower painter Gilbert Drouet in 1824-25 and gilded by Antonine-Gabriel Boullemier (known as Boullemier jeune). Lawrence was hugely appreciative and proud of the service gift. He left instructions in his will that the service, which he ‘had the honour to receive from that Monarch as a mark of his distinguished favour, a superb service of Sèvres porcelain’, was to be left to the Royal Academy, with the express wish that it should be used on the King’s birthday and on other public occasions. In the event, Lawrence’s estate was saddled with such debt that the executors wrote to the Academicians asking them to purchase the service instead. The request was declined and what remained of the service was eventually sold at Christie’s, London, on 5 July 1834, along with most of Lawrence’s possessions.
1. Rochefoucauld’s presentation letter to Lawrence was accompanied by an unpriced factory invoice listing the pieces. Both letter and invoice are held with Lawrence’s papers at the Royal Academy.