The element of fire: porcelain in France

Transcription

1 Diploma Lecture Series 2012 Absolutism to enlightenment: European art and culture The element of fire: porcelain in France Josephine Touma 20/21 June 2012 Lecture summary: This lecture will look at the culture of porcelain in France in the first half of the eighteenth century. Beginning with Chinese and Japanese imports, made French by the addition of ormolu (gilded bronze) mounts, porcelain became increasingly popular amongst French collectors in the early decades of the century. With the development and improvement of soft paste production, France became a significant producer of porcelain in its own right. Supported by Louis XV and significant patrons including the King s mistress Madame de Pompadour, the factory at Sèvres came to rival the Saxon Meissen manufactory (despite the fact that they did not achieve true or hard paste porcelain until the 1770s) with their innovative designs and skilful craftsmanship. Porcelain in France - whether imported and modified, or manufactured locally - is an inextricable part of the rococo aesthetic that emphaises exoticism and prizes naturally-derived materials and motifs transformed through artful design. Slide list: *1. François Boucher, The element of fire, c. 1740, red chalk, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2. Meissen Porcelain Factory, Chinoiserie tea caddy, c. 1740, Kenneth Reed collection 3. Monteith bowl, c (China: Qing dynasty , Kangxi ), porcelain with blue underglaze, Art Gallery of NSW 4. Jean-Antoine Watteau, Gersaint s shopsign, 1720, oil on canvas, Schloss Charlottenberg, Berlin 5. Meissen manufactory, Nodding padgod, c. 1760, hard paste porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York *6. Comte de Caylus, after François Boucher, A la pagode (trade card for Gersaint), engraving, a: Chinese porcelain vases with ormolu (gilt bronze) mounts, Getty Museum, Los Angeles b: Writing desk, vernis Martin (imitation lacquer) 8. Jean Siméon Chardin, Allegory of the Sciences, 1731 oil on canvas, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris 9. Chinese porcelain pieces in ormolu mounts *10. Henry-Nicolas Cousinet (silversmith), Tea, coffee, and chocolate service (known as Marie Leszczynska s nécessaire), , silver-gilt, Chinese porcelain, Japanese porcelain, Meissen porcelain, case: violetwood lined with crimson velvet, Musée du Louvre, Paris 11. detail of porcelain from a: Chinese manufactory, 5 piece porcelain set, Kangxi reign, c , Hard paste porcelain, underglaze blue decoration. Getty Museum b: Saint cloud porcelain manufacture, Lidded ewer and bowl, early 1700s; mounts: , Soft paste porcelain, underglaze blue decoration; silver mounts, Getty Museum 13. a: François Boucher, Madame de Pompadour with Her Hand Resting on a Harpsichord Keyboard, 1750?, Oil on paper mounted on canvas, Musée du Louvre b: Chateau de Bellevue, engraving Proudly sponsored by

2 14. Meissen manufactory and Vincennes manufactory, c , Vase of hard paste porcelain, flowers of soft paste porcelain, polychrome enamel decoration; gilt bronze mounts 15. Vincennes manufactory, model attributed to Jean-Claude Duplessis, Vase, c.1752, soft paste porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art 16. Vincennes manufactory, Covered broth bowl and stand, c , soft paste porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art 17. Sèvres manufactory, water jug and bowl, , Soft paste porcelain, polychrome decoration with gold heightening, Private Collection (exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, in Rococo: the continuing curve exhibition, 2008) 18. a. After a design by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier ( ), Candlesticks, , Gilt bronze b. Sèvres manufactory, Pair of wall lights, ca. 1761, soft paste porcelain c. Frontispiece to Meissonier s, Livre d ornemens, engraving, 1734 all Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 19. Pieces from a garniture for Madame de Pompadour a: Sèvres manufactory, Jean-Claude Duplessis (design), Charles-Nicholas Dodin (decoration), Vessel pot-pourri, c.1760, Musée du Louvre b: Sèvres manufactory, Jean-Claude Duplessis (design), Charles-Nicholas Dodin (decoration), Fountain vase, c.1760, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 20. Sèvres manufactory, tea caddy in Rose Pompadour, 1759, soft paste porcelain, Kenneth Reed Collection 21. views of the porcelain room, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin 22. views of the Louis XV room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, paneling c , Paris 23. views from the exhibition Dangerous Liaisons, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The cabinet chinois at the Château de Champs-sur-Marne, with paintings by Christophe Huet, c *25. a. Francois Boucher, The agreeable lesson, 1748, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria b. Sèvres manufactory, after François Boucher, The music lesson, c , soft paste porcelain, (biscuit), Getty Museum c. Chelsea manufactory (Britain), after François Boucher, The music lesson, c. 1760, soft paste porcelain (glazed), National Gallery of Victoria 26. Re-creation of a mid-eighteenth century table, with sugar paste and porcelain decorations, by Ivan Day (from Sèvres hard paste cup and saucer, black and gold chinoiserie pattern, 1785, Kenneth Reed Collection 28. a: Sèvres manufactory, The Emperor in coronation robes, after Gérard, tapered spindle vase, 2nd size (Vase fuseau, 2me grandeur: L Empereur en costume de sacre d après Gérard) 1812 (recto), porcelain (hard paste), gilt bronze, Fondation Napoléon, Paris b: Sèvres manufactory, Nipple-cup known as the Breast bowl (Jatte-téton, dite bol sein), 1788 porcelain (hard paste), Sèvres Cité de la Céramique NB: Pieces from the Kenneth Reed collection are part of a bequest promised to the Art Gallery of NSW and are currently on display in the Grand Courts. For more information on the Reed Bequest, see: Reference: Howard Coutts, The art of ceramics: European ceramic design, , Yale University Press, 2001 Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide and Jeffrey Munger, The Wrightsman Galleries for French decorative arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010 Alden Cavanaugh and Michael E. Yonan (ed.), The cultural aesthetics of eighteenth-century porcelain, Ashgate, [See especially the essays by Mimi Hellmann (on porcelain flowers) and Alden Cavanaugh (on Marie Leszczynska s nécessaire)] Alain Gruber, The history of the decorative arts: Classicism and the Baroque in Europe, Abbeville Press New York, 1992 [Particularly lavishly illustrated] See also the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) for short introductory essays introducing French porcelain, Chinese export ware, chinoiserie, gilded bronze, etc.

3 François Boucher, The element of fire, c. 1740, red chalk, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

4 Comte de Caylus, after François Boucher, A la pagode (trade card for Gersaint), engraving, 1740

5 Henry-Nicolas Cousinet (silversmith), Tea, coffee, and chocolate service (known as Marie Leszczynska s nécessaire), , silver-gilt, Chinese porcelain, Japanese porcelain, Meissen porcelain, case: violetwood lined with crimson velvet, Musée du Louvre, Paris

6 a. Francois Boucher, The agreeable lesson, 1748, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria b. Sèvres manufactory, after François Boucher, The music lesson, c , soft paste porcelain, (biscuit), Getty Museum c. Chelsea manufactory (Britain), after François Boucher, The music lesson, c. 1760, soft paste porcelain (glazed), National Gallery of Victoria

7 a 25 b 25 c