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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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An extremely fine set of six Louis XV cream and rustic green painted beechwood fauteuils à la reine attributed to Jean Gourdin known as Père Gourdin, each with a cartouche-shaped caned back and caned seat, with an additional fitted dark olive leather seat cushion and padded arm rests, the finely carved frame with toprail centred by a scalloped cartouche and acanthus scrolls continuing around the shoulder angles, with scrolled arms and a shaped apron centred by a scalloped cartouche and acanthus on cabriole legs headed by a foliate cartouche terminating in foliate wrapped scroll feet Paris, date circa 1750 Height 93 cm, width 64 cm. each. Provenance: From a private collection from L’Ille de France, Paris. Literature: Bill Pallot, The Art of the Chair in Eighteenth-Century France, 1989, p. 117 illustrating two painted beechwood and cane upholstered fauteuils and a canapé stamped Père Gourdin, from the Galerie Gismondi collection of extremely similar design and detail. Pierre Kjellberg, “Le Mobilier Français de XVIIIe Siècle”, 1989, p. 365, illustrating a Louis XV painted caned chair by Jean Gourdin with pronounced floral and foliate carved decoration on the toprail, apron and at the head of the cabriole legs. The mid eighteenth century Parisian menuisier Jean Gourdin is known to have created a number of cane chairs and settees, which as here were carved with scallop cartouches as well as acanthus decoration, while others included pronounced floral and foliate decorations. Though some of his seats were upholstered, caned seating was one of his specialities so that he not only created cane fauteuils à la reine and canapés but also fauteuils de bureau (one of which is illustrated in Kjellberg, ibid. p. 365). As here, Jean Gourdin’s style tended to evoke the Régence taste; it was both elegant and well proportioned and had pronounced carved decoration. Recorded from 1737-63 as working at rue de Cléry at the sign of ‘Saint-Jacques’ and of ‘Père Gourdin’, this fine maker must have enjoyed a distinguished clientele. Today one can find a suite comprising a canapé and six fauteuils à la reine by him reupholstered in a Beauvais tapestry at Château de Condé-en-Brie as well as a similar suite at Château de Montgeoffroy at Maine-et-Loire. In addition other chairs by him are housed in the royal Swedish collections, while another Louis XV painted beechwood and cane upholstered fauteuil by him can be found at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Heading a family of menuisiers, Jean Gourdin tended to sign his work with the stamp Père Gourdin, so as to distinguish his seating from that made by his two sons Jean-Baptiste Gourdin (maître 1748, d. after 1776) and Michel Gourdin, known as Gourdin le Jeune, (maître 1752, d. after 1777). Like their father, both Jean-Baptiste and Michel initially worked in the Louis XV style but as fashions changed they then worked in the Transitional and Michel also in the Louis XVI style. Again like their father, their art was of the highest standard, with Jean-Baptiste counting the prince de Soubise among his patrons while Michel became a fournisseur to the Garde-Meuble in 1777. Examples by both sons can be found among the Wrightsman Collection, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York and at Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Jean-Baptiste, like his father, is also represented at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, while examples by both can be found in other important public collections. |