VI French Furniture. The Period of Louis XIV
Louis XIV. (1643-1715), covering English periods of Civil War, Commonwealth, Charles II., James II., William and Mary, and Anne.
1619-1683. Colbert, Minister of Finance and patron of the arts.
1661-1687. Versailles built.
1662. Gobelins Tapestry Works started by Colbert; Le Brun first director (1662-1690).
1664. Royal Academy of Painting, Architecture, and Sculpture founded by Colbert, to which designs of furniture were admitted.
In order to arrive at a sense of proportion as to the value of English furniture and its relation to contemporary art in Europe, it is necessary to pass under hasty examination the movements that were taking place in France in the creation of a new style in furniture under the impulses of the epoch of the Grande Monarque. To estimate more correctly the styles of the Early Jacobean and of the later English furniture extending to the days of Chippendale and Sheraton, it must be borne in mind that England was not always so insular in art as the days of Queen Anne would seem to indicate. It is impossible for the cabinetmakers and the craftsmen to have utterly ignored the splendours of France. Louis XIV. had a long and eventful reign, which extended from the days when Charles I. was marshalling his forces to engage in civil war with the Parliament down to the closing years of Queen Anne. During his minority it cannot be said that Louis XIV. influenced art in furniture, but from 1661, contemporary with Charles II., when he assumed the despotic power that he exercised for half a century, his love of sumptuousness, and his personal supervision of the etiquette of a formal Court, in which no detail was omitted to surround royalty with magnificence, made him the patron of the fine arts, and gave his Court the most splendid prestige in Europe.
As a headpiece to this chapter we give a very fine example of a cassette, or strong box, of the time of Louis XIV. It is securely bound with metal bands of exquisite design. The interior is fitted with a number of secret drawers.
In the illustration (p. 159) it will be seen that the chair of the period of Louis Treize differed in no great respects from the furniture under the early Stuarts in this country. This design is by the celebrated Crispin de Passe, and the date is when Charles I. raised his standard at Nottingham, a year prior to the birth of Louis XIV.
During the reign of Louis XIV., tables, armoires, and cabinets were designed on architectural principles. Under the guiding influence of Colbert, Minister of Finance, architects and cabinetmakers were selected to design furniture for the Tuileries, the Louvre, and Fontainebleau. In the early years of the reign furniture was made with severe lines, but gradually it became the practice to fashion larger pieces. Immense tables with sumptuous decoration, on gilded claw-feet, and having tops inlaid with pietra-dura intended to carry bronze groups and porphyry vases, were made at the Gobelins factory, under the direction of the celebrated Le Brun. This artist loved grandeur and gorgeousness in decoration, and in accord with the personal ideas of Louis XIV., who had an inordinate love for perfect symmetry, huge pieces of furniture were built in magnificent manner to please the taste of the Grande Monarque. Men of genius were employed in the manufacture of tapestries, of furniture, and of metal mountings, and the interior decorations of the palaces were designed in harmony with the furniture intended for use therein.
The most illustrious among the cabinetmakers was André Charles Boule, who was made, in 1673, by letters patent, Premier ébéniste de la maison royale. The work of this artist in wood has attained a worldwide celebrity, and his name even has been corrupted into “buhl” to denote a particular class of work which he perfected. His most notable productions are the finely chased ormolu, in which he was an accomplished worker, and the inlay of tortoiseshell and brass, sometimes varied with ebony or silver, which have remained the wonder of succeeding generations.
Boule was born in 1642, and lived till 1732. The first Boule, termed “Le Père,” he was succeeded by no less than four sons and nephews of the same name, in addition to his pupils who carried on his traditions at the Boule atelier, and a crowd of later imitators, even up to the present day, have followed his style in lavish decoration without being possessed of his skill.
In Italy and in France marquetry of considerable delicacy and of fine effect had been produced long before the epoch of Louis XIV., but it was Boule who introduced a novelty into marquetry by his veneered work, which rapidly grew into favour till it developed into cruder colouring in inlays and unbridled licence in ornamentation, to which its originator would never have given countenance.
The pieces of furniture usually associated with him are massive structures of ebony with their surfaces covered with tortoiseshell, in which are inlaid arabesques, scrolls, and foliage in thin brass or other metal. Upon the surface of this metal inlay further ornamentation was chased with the burin. This alternation of tortoiseshell and brass forms a brilliant marquetry. Into the chased designs on the metal a black enamel was introduced to heighten the effect, which was further increased by portions of the wood beneath the semi-transparent tortoiseshell being coloured black or brown or red; sometimes a bluish-green was used. Later imitators, not content with the beautiful effect of tortoiseshell, used horn in parts, which is more transparent, and they did not fear the garish effect of blue or vermilion underneath. Boule’s creations, set in massive mounts and adornments of masks and bas-reliefs, cast in gilt-bronze and chased, were pieces of furniture of unsurpassed magnificence, and especially designed for the mirrored splendours of the salons of Versailles.
In boule-work all parts of the marquetry are held down by glue to the bed, usually of oak, the metal being occasionally fastened down by small brass pins, which are hammered flat and chased over so as to be imperceptible.
In order to economise the material, Boule, when his marquetry became in demand, employed a process which led to the use of the technical terms, boule and counter-boule. The brass and the tortoiseshell were cut into thin sheets. A number of sheets of brass were clamped together with the same number of sheets of tortoiseshell. The design was then cut out, the result being that each sheet of tortoiseshell had a design cut out of it, into which the same design from one of the sheets of brass would exactly fit. Similarly each sheet of brass had a design cut out of it into which a corresponding piece of tortoiseshell would fit. That in which the ground is of tortoiseshell and the inlaid portion is brass, is considered the better, and is called boule, or the première partie. That in which the groundwork is brass and the design inlaid is of tortoiseshell, is called counter-boule or contre-partie. This latter is used for side panels.
An examination of the specimens preserved in the Louvre, at the Jones Bequest at the Victoria and Albert Museum, or in the Wallace Collection will enable the student to see more readily how this practice works out in the finished result. In the illustration (p. 163) of the two pedestals the effect of the employment of boule and counter-boule is shown.
Associated with Boule is Jean Bérain, who had a fondness for the Italian style; his designs are more symmetrically correct, both in ornamental detail and in architectural proportion. His conceptions are remarkable for their fanciful elaboration, and their wealth of profuse scrollwork. In the French national collections at the Louvre, at Versailles, and elsewhere there are many beautiful examples of his chandeliers of magnificent carved and gilded work. The freedom of the spiral arms and complex coils he introduced into his candelabra have never been equalled as harmonious portions of a grandly conceived scheme of magnificent interior decoration, to which, in the days of Louis XIV., so much artistic talent was devoted.
With regard to the value of some of the specimens in the national collections, it is difficult to form an estimate. The Boule cabinet, probably designed by Bérain, executed by Boule for Louis XIV. (illustrated p. 165) would, if put up for sale at Christie’s, probably fetch £15,000. This piece is held to be grander in style than any in the galleries in France. At the Wallace Collection there are examples which would bring fabulous sums if sold. A cabinet by Boule, in the Jones Bequest, purchased by Mr. Jones for £3,000 in 1881, is now worth three times that sum.
Upon the building, decorating, and furnishing of Versailles Louis XIV. spent over five hundred million francs, in addition to which there was the army of workmen liable to statute labour. Some twenty thousand men and six thousand horses were employed in 1684 at the different parts of the château and park. In May, 1685, there were no less than thirty-six thousand employed.
The illustrious craftsmen who were employed upon the magnificent artistic interior decorations have transmitted their names to posterity. Bérain, Lepautre, Henri de Gissey, are the best known of the designers. Among the painters are the names of Audran, Baptiste, Jouvenet, Mignard, and the best known of the sculptors are Coustou and Van Clève. Of the woodcarvers, metal-chasers, locksmiths, and gilders Pierre Taupin, Ambroise Duval, Delobel, and Goy are names of specialists in their own craft who transformed Versailles from a royal hunting-box into one of the most splendid palaces in Europe.