Neoclassicism - France - Part 1

The Neoclassic style was introduced into France only gradually, bronze mounts and handles being the first details to be affected by the return to symmetry, and the cabriole leg the last Rococo feature to be ousted in favour of vertical types. French Neoclassicism is commonly associated with the reign of Louis XVI but Cochin, who had been in Italy c.1750, was decrying the wastefulness of the Rococo in a supplication addressed to goldsmiths and sculptors in 1754 - the year that the future Louis XVI was born, and 20 years before he became king.

The first designs for Neoclassical handmade furniture to be published in France were those of Jean-Francois Neufforge (1714 - 1791), which appeared in 1765 and 1768. His 'medal cabinets' are monumental constructions and suggest a revival of the Louis XIV style at its most opulent. One such cabinet has draped figures as term supports and a pediment composed of two Grecian maidens flanking a bust. Neufforge also used sphinxes and other Egyptian motifs, but the style was known too fashionable to Parisian society as gout grec, 'the Greek taste'. Another designer of this heavy style was Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734 - 1791), who made great play with Greek key patterns and laurel wreaths in his engravings, published in 1768, 1773, 1776 and 1785.

Boulle marquetry, a technique which had been rather neglected for some years, was now used again, as was pietre dure. Panels of this work is inlaid, coloured stones were not infrequently taken from Louis XIV pieces and re-used on break-front commodes of the Louis XVI period. One of the eminent cabinet-makers who adopted this practice was Adam Weisweiler (c.1750 - x.1810), who was among the many Germans who settled in Paris in response to the great demand the for expensive fitted and non fitted furniture. There is little or no evidence that they were actively encouraged to come by the Queen, Marie Antoinette, as is often suggested, but the extravagance of court circles was no doubt a sufficient inducement. Weisweiler worked for the Roentgen family at Neuwied before setting up in Paris in 1778, where he operated mainly through the dealer Dominique Daguerre.

Weisweiler seldom executed marquetry, preferring plain mahogany in combination with sheer black lacquer, sometimes inset with Sevres porcelain plaques. He specialised in small, delicate pieces such as the chiffoniere, originally a narrow chest-of-drawers, known as a semainier when it was seven drawers - one for every day of the week.

Characteristic features of Weisweiler's work are legs which revive in a highly refined way the barley-sugar twist, and which are often joined by curiously interlaced stretchers. He used bronze mounts, including some in the form of sphinx heads, which were of exceptional quality. The mounts were frequently supplied by Pierre Gouthiere (1732 - c.1812), one of the finest makers of bronze mounts, clock-cases and ornaments, who perfected a process whereby part of the surface was left matt while the rest was polished. He seldom signed his work, although objects of art bearing bogus signatures are not uncommon. He went bankrupt in 1788 and was irretrievably ruined by the Revolution in the following year. It is probable that he supplied mounts to J.H. Riesener, the successor to J.F. Oeben. Riesener completed two desks begun by his predecessor, one for Louis XV, which is now at Versailles, and the other for the exiled king of Poland, Stanislaw Leszczynski, who was the father-in-law of Louis. This latter desk is now in the Wallace Collection, and it is one of the very first roll-top desks. It is a type known as a bureau-cylindre, the large kneehole writing-table having a semi-cylindrical cover which encloses the top. These magnificent specimens served as models for later, less sumptuous pieces. Reisener is generally held to be the greatest ebeniste working in Paris during the Louis XVI period, the years 1780 - 1789 being his most productive, when he supplied a great deal of furniture at enormously high prices to Marie Antoinette. He continued to employ marquetry decoration throughout this period, especially on the central panels of break-front commodes, while at the same time producing much plainer pieces with mahogany and satinwood veneers relieved with bronze of an unsurpassed quality.