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Louis XV FINESSE
A very fine Louis XV carved beechwood fauteuil à la reine by Jean-Baptiste Boulard, stamped J • B • BOULARD, with a cartouche-shaped padded back, serpentine seat and padded arm rests covered in a red and gold trellis pattern silk, the finely carved channelled frame with toprail centred by flowers and foliage and foliate sprays to the shoulder angles, with scrolled arms and shaped and channelled apron centred by a trailing floral spray on floral headed cabriole legs
Paris, date circa 1755-60
Height 103 cm, width 74 cm, depth 60 cm.
Literature: Pierre Kjellberg, “Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle”, 1998, p. 100, pl. B, illustrating one of a set of four fauteuils à la reine of very similar design.
Considered to be one of the great Parisian menuisiers of his day, Jean-Baptiste Boulard (b. circa 1725 d.1789) was accepted as a maître on April 17th 1754. Setting up his workshop in rue de Cléry, he soon gained such repute that in 1777 he was appointed Fournisseur-Ordinaire du Mobilier de la Couronne, and from then up until his death supplied considerable quantities of furniture to the Garde-Meuble for use in the various royal palaces. The majority of his output consisted of chairs, of which many were in the Louis XVI style although some of his earlier examples, such as we see here, were in the gentler rococo mode. Among those in the Louis XV style was a set of gilt wood fauteuils à la reine with medallion backs now in the Musée Ephrussi at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferret and a fauteuil with whicker back bearing the mark of Château de Chanteloup (sold Paris 1987).
Among later examples supplied to royalty was a sofa made for Marie-Antoinette’s Cabinet at the Tuileries in 1784 (private collection), part of a richly carved Louis XVI suite ordered 1784-85 for the king’s Cabinet at Compiègne (Musée du Louvre), a set of Louis XVI chairs made in 1786 for the Salon de Jeu at Fontainebleau (Wallace Collection, London and Metropolitan Museum, New York) as well as part of another set for the king’s dining room at Versailles, 1786 (private collection). In addition, in circa 1785 Boulard provided Louis XVI with a lit à colonnes (now lost) and a lit à la Polonaise (now Petit Trianon), respectively installed at Fontainebleau and Compiègne and another used by Gustavus III, king of Sweden during his stay at Versailles in 1784. Other royal commissions included the making of the frame for a screen for Louis XVI’s bedchamber at Compiègne (Musée du Louvre). In addition to the king and queen, Boulard’s prestigious clientele included Madame Elizabeth and Louise, the comte and comtesse de Provence, the comte d’Artois and the duchesse de Polignac.
A number of Boulard’s royal commissions were executed in collaboration, often with the eminent menuisier Jean-Baptiste Sené (1747-1803) and Jean-Baptiste II Tilliard (1723-97). The carving of his seats was generally relegated to various sculpteurs while Bardou, who lived close to him in rue De Cléry, usually carried out the gilding. On 29th March 1789, a few weeks before his death, Boulard was elected conseilleur of the corporation of Menuisiers-Ébénistes. Following his death on 17th April 1789 his widow Louise Gillet (d. 1808) continued his concern, supplying furniture to the Garde-Meuble up until the Reign of Terror. Despite the Revolution the business survived and was successfully run by his descendants during the Empire and subsequent restoration of the monarchy until its final closure in 1832.
In addition to those collections mentioned above, examples of Boulard’s work can be found in the Musées des Arts Décoratifs and Carnavalet in Paris, Château de Chantilly and the Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon.
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