THE FURNISHING: The furniture of Mme Pompadour (Louis XV)


The most beautiful furniture in the world (by Lorenzo Crivellin)


I met Madame Pompadour thanks to my passion for the ancient furniture and the restoration.
Many years ago I decided to increase my knowledge in arts so I took up restoring ancient furniture as a hobby:

I have been fascinated by the French Roccaille style, by its curves that remind those of a female body.
They were the early dawn of the Liberty style, nice and harmonious forms that matched with the veneers made of rose wood and palisander.
Those lines expressed a typical elegant, refined female taste. Obviously studying this historical period I came across the figure of the Marchioness and...
I discovered this unique woman from 18° century.
She lived in the central part of the century (the Illuminism) promoting and managing the famous “transition period”, which transformed the Louis XV style (being derived by the rococo it was quite heavy) into the wonderful Louis XVI style. In fact in 1763 (an year before the death of Madame Pompadour), the Italian artist Maggiolini created the famous “commode” (which is in Milan at the Museo Sforzesco) with the circular handles and the neoclassical marquetry; the curved forms were still present not so the bronze details.

The transition style of Madame Pompadour along with the Louis XV style, it is nowadays recognised as the “biological style”: it was so in line with the nature and the human feelings that the artistic interest won’t fade. Needless to say that Madame Pompadour was a great supporter for the arts, in various fields such architecture, writing, literature, theatre and so on. We have a section about these subjects and, if anyone had to add or ask something, we would appreciate that very much.

We introduce a few pieces of furniture of the transition as well as the Louis XVI periods.
The furniture of the Louis XV style are visible in the section “The cabinet-makers of Louis XV period” as this has to be a homage to those incomparable artists.

The following one is a historical episode that confirms what I wrote before reported by Terrasson:

“Madame Pompadour ET la création de la Porcelaine de France” (“Madame Pompadour and the creation of the French porcelain”), Bibliothèque de France (The Library of France):

“Madame Pompadour had died a few hours ago when Migeon, her favourite cabinet-makers, came to deliver a furniture that she had ordered a few months before dying.
The King sent the prince of Soubise to look for him as it was one o’clock p.m. and after midday in Versailles no delivery was allowed.

The artist explain to the King that on having received the bronzes for the furniture the evening before, he thought to finish the piece quickly in order to please Madame Pompadour. Once on the road to the castle he heard about her death...the small commode was in red lacquer and it was made for the green lounge.

The three men took the secret stairs that the King used to go to her apartment and at the end the prince of Soubise opened the door and stopped: in the room there were all the people that she loved, like Gray her favourite engraver of precious stones.

Her valets, her lady of chamber, M.me de Hausset, who worked for the marchioness for more then twenty years.
They were praying, so the King prayed with them and say the Catholic salute to the dead aloud. Soubise thanked all of them on behalf of the King.

Then Louis XV called Migeon and shook hands with him, while the artist, crying, said: “My Lord she has been the most harmonious tune, her exquisite taste will honour your Kingdom for the next centuries. She was the “Pompadour fashion” my Lord”.



The portraits of
François Boucher "B 2"




The portraits of
François Hubert Drouais "D 2"




The portraits of
François Boucher "B 5"

(Madame de Pompadour à sa toilette)


The portraits of
François Guérin "GU 1"



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A beautiful desk called “bureau plat”. In Italy it is known as “Diplomatic”. The elegance of this piece of furniture reveals a typical female taste.


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A “table en chiffonniére” (a chest of drawers), a small piece of furniture usually for women. This was the kind of furniture that Madame Pompadour liked most.


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This is a typical commode in Louis XV style and it is the most imitated piece of furniture in the world.
The commode is still regularly produced: pay attention to the copies!


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A folding desk, another typical piece of furniture that the Marchioness liked.


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A small, mechanical writing table with the function of dressing table (1757-1760), by Jean-François Oeben.
J.Paul Getty Museum
Dimensions: h. 73 w. 73,9, d. 17,8 cm.

Author: Jean François Oeben

A typical example of furniture made for women.


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A desk-dressing table.

Author: Jean François Oeben


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A desk (1755-1758). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
(This piece of furniture belonged to Madame of Pompadour)

Author: Jean François Oeben
Dimensioni: h. 69,8 w. 81,9 d. 46,7 cm.

Any comment is useless, this incredible masterpiece must be seen.


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A couple of desks (1760). One is at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the other is at the Louvre Museum.
(This piece of furniture belonged to Madame of Pompadour)

Author: Jean François Oeben
Dimensioni: h. 69,3 w. 79,5 d. 44,8 cm.

The engravings are quite similar; the geometrical drawings are the first step towards the Louis XVI style.

These desks are an example of the extreme refined taste of Madame of Pompadour.


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A desk (1763). The Wallace collection.

Author: it is signed L. E. LEU (Jean François Leleu). It was probably began by Jean François Oeben.
Dimensioni: h. 73,6 w. 57,8 d. 42,5 cm.

This transformable small table was used as: table, desk, embroidering table, toilette.

It was purposely created for the ladies of that period.

 

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