Chats on Old Furniture Part 13

IX

FRENCH FURNITURE. THE FIRST EMPIRE STYLE

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORTRAIT OF MADAME ReCAMIER.

(After David.)

Showing Empire settee and footstool.

(_In the Louvre._)]

IX

FRENCH FURNITURE--THE FIRST EMPIRE STYLE

1789. Commencement of French Revolution.

1798. Napoleon's campaign in Egypt.

1805. Napoleon prepares to invade England; Battle of Trafalgar; French naval power destroyed.

1806. Napoleon issued Berlin Decree to destroy trade of England.

1812. Napoleon invaded Russia, with disastrous retreat from Moscow.

1814. Napoleon abdicated.

1815. Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.

When Louis XVI. called together the States-General in 1789, which had not met since 1614, the first stone was laid of the French Republic.

After the king was beheaded in 1793, the Reign of Terror followed, during which the wildest licence prevailed. Under the Directory, for four years from 1795, the country settled down until the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, who took the government in his own hands with the t.i.tle of Consul, and in 1804 called himself Emperor of the French.

During the Reign of Terror the ruthless fury of a nation under mob-law did not spare the most beautiful objects of art which were a.s.sociated with a hated aristocracy. Furniture especially suffered, and it is a matter for wonderment that so much escaped destruction. Most of the furniture of the royal palaces was consigned to the spoliation of "the Black Committee," who trafficked in works of great price, and sold to foreign dealers the gems of French art for less than a quarter of their real value. So wanton had become the destruction of magnificent furniture that the Convention, with an eye on the possibilities of raising money in the future, ordered the furniture to be safely stored in the museums of Paris.

After so great a social upheaval, art in her turn was subjected to revolutionary notions. Men cast about to find something new. Art, more than ever, attempted to absorb the old cla.s.sic spirit. The Revolution was the deathblow to Rococo ornament. With the cla.s.sic influences came ideas from Egypt, and the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii provided a further source of design. A detail of a portion of a tripod table found at Pompeii shows the nature of the beautiful furniture discovered.

As early as 1763, Grimm wrote: "For some years past we are beginning to inquire for antique ornaments and forms. The interior and exterior decorations of houses, furniture, materials of dress, work of the goldsmiths, all bear alike the stamp of the Greeks. The fas.h.i.+on pa.s.ses from architecture to millinery; our ladies have their hair dressed _a la Grecque_." A French translation of Winckelmann appeared in 1765, and Diderot lent his powerful aid in heralding the dawn of the revival of the antique long before the curtain went up on the events of 1789.

Paris in Revolution days a.s.sumed the atmosphere of ancient Rome.

Children were given Greek and Roman names. Cla.s.sical things got rather mixed. People called themselves "Romans." Others had Athenian notions.

Madame Vigee-Lebrun gave _soupers a la Grecque_. Madame Lebrun was Aspasia, and M. l'Abbe Barthelemy, in a Greek dress with a laurel wreath on his head, recited a Greek poem.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DETAIL OF TRIPOD TABLE FOUND AT POMPEII.

(_At Naples Museum._)]

These, among a thousand other signs of the extraordinary spirit of cla.s.sicism which possessed France, show how deep rooted had become the idea of a modern Republic that should emulate the fame of Athens and of Rome. The First Consul favoured these ideas, and his portraits represent him with a laurel wreath around his head posing as a Caesar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By kind permission from the collection of Dr. Sigerson, Dublin._

SERVANTE.

Marble top; supported on two ormolu legs elaborately chased with figures of Isis. Panelled at back with gla.s.s mirror.

FRENCH; LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.]

In transition days before the style known as Empire had become fixed there is exhibited in art a feeling which suggests the deliberate search after new forms and new ideas. To this period belongs the _servante_, which, by the kindness of Dr. Sigerson, of Dublin, is reproduced from his collection. The claw-foot, the ram's head, the bay-leaf, and a frequent use of caryatides and animal forms, is a common ornamentation in furniture of the Empire period. In this specimen the two legs of ormolu have these characteristics, and it is noticeable that the shape of the leg and its details of ornament bear a striking resemblance to the leg of the Pompeiian table ill.u.s.trated (p. 205). But the deities of Egypt have contributed a new feature in the seated figure of the G.o.ddess Isis.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JEWEL CABINET OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE.

Made on the occasion of her marriage with the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1810.

(_At Fontainebleau._)]

Napoleon himself encouraged the cla.s.sic spirit which killed all memories of an _ancien regime_. He would have been pleased to see all the relics of the former glories of France demolished. He had at one time a project to rebuild Versailles as a cla.s.sic temple.

At the height of his splendour he became the patron of the fine arts, and attempted to leave his impression upon art as he did upon everything else. New furniture was designed for the Imperial palaces. Riesener was alive, but it does not appear that he took any part in the new creations. David, the great French painter, an ardent Republican, was won over to become a Court painter. At Malmaison and at Fontainebleau there are many fine examples of the First Empire period which, however, cannot be regarded as the most artistic in French furniture. Preserved at Fontainebleau is the jewel cabinet, made by Thomire and Odiot, at the Emperor's orders as a wedding gift, in 1810, to the Empress Marie Louise, in emulation of the celebrated Riesener cabinet at the Trianon.

The wood used for this, and for most of the Empire cabinets, is rich mahogany, which affords a splendid ground for the bronze gilt mounts (_see_ p. 207).

The portrait of Madame Recamier, by David, which is in the Louvre, given as headpiece to this chapter, shows the severe style of furniture in use at the zenith of the Empire period. The couch follows cla.s.sic models, and the tall candelabrum is a suggestion from Herculaneum models.

The influence that this cla.s.sic revival had upon furniture in this country is told in a subsequent chapter. In regard to costume, the gowns of the First Empire period have become quite fas.h.i.+onable in recent years.

Although this style of furniture degenerated into commonplace designs with affectedly hard outlines, it had a considerable vogue. In addition to the influence it had upon the brothers Adam and upon Sheraton, it left its trace on English furniture up till the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The chair ill.u.s.trated (p. 210) is about the year 1800 in date. There is presumptive evidence that this chair was made in Bombay after European design. It is of rosewood, carved in relief with honeysuckle and floral design. The scrolled ends of the top rail show at once its French derivation.

In the national collections in this country there are very few specimens of Empire furniture. The Duke of Wellington has some fine examples at Apsley House, treasured relics of its historic a.s.sociations with the victor of Waterloo. The demand in France, for furniture of the First Empire style has in all probability denuded the open market of many fine specimens. Owing to the fact that this country was at war with France when the style was at its height, the number of Empire pieces imported was very limited, nor does First Empire furniture seem to have greatly captivated the taste of English collectors, as among the records of sales of furniture by public auction very little has come under the hammer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _By kind permission of the Rev. H. V. Le Bas._

ARMCHAIR, ROSEWOOD.

Carved in relief with honeysuckle pattern Formerly in possession of the Duke of Newcastle.

ENGLISH; LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.]

X

CHIPPENDALE