Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/423

 s. VIIL NOT. 16, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The series thus constituted will be the best and most serviceable guide in existence to a subject of undying interest. Abundant opportunities of studying French furniture and decoration are offered in England in collections such as those at South Kensington and Hertford House. Lady Dilke's studies have been principally conducted in France, where materials are still more abundant. Much French work, not always the best or the most delicate, was, however, executed for foreign galleries at Potsdam or elsewhere. It is from the great historic chateaux of France Versailles, Compiegne, Chantilly, the Hotels de Rohan and de Soubise that the most marvellous specimens of furniture are obtained.

Not easy, as Lady Dilke points out, is the observ- ance of system in the treatment of decorative art in the eighteenth century. When the powerful influence of Le Roi Soleil was at an end a bewilder- ing crowd of tendencies manifested themselves, and although " the gradual triumph of the straight line and the growing allegiance to classical motives" are traceable, the main development was crossed by many influences, grotesque or realistic. The very phrases " style Louis XV." and " style Louis XVI." are misleading, and the share of Marie Antoinette in what is known by the latter name is declared to be "a romantic fiction." To Robert de Cotte and Germain Boffrand the former the most celebrated of a family of distin guished architects, and director of the Academy oi Architecture (to whom, among other works, is due the grand gallery of the Hotel de la Valliere, after- wards the Hotel Toulouse, and now the Banque de France), the latter largely concerned with the internal decorations of the Hotel de Soubise is attributed the development of the " style Re"gence ' and the " style Louis XV." Both were pupils o: Mansard. Lady Dilke characterizes as magnificent the works carried out under the charge of Boffrand in the Hotel de Soubise. Earlier writers have charged them with bad taste. In the Golden Gallery meanwhile, the magnificent decorations show th< talents of De Cotte under their most untrammellec conditions, and consequently at their best. In the alterations that have been executed these have been scrupulously respected. In the Hote de Soubise are best studied the delicacy anc lightness which, in the work of Boffrand, convey "an impression of equal grandeur and magni ficence." To the vandalism of Henri Pierre Francoi Labrouste, who cast into the street the boiseries o De Cotte in the Bibliotheque Nationale, it is du that the superb " rampe d'escalier" is in Hertfon House, and that other work of not less importanc is in English hands. A careful study of Nicola Pineau and the Elysee follows. Apropos of th Elysee, the author protests against the vandalisr of Louis Napoleon who, in the Salle du Consei! formerly the Salon de Musique, substituted for th heads of the Muses in the midst of the decoration " style Regence" those of Queen Victoria and othe European sovereigns. No attempt is made in th present volume to reconstitute the share of Ver beckt in the execution of decorations at Versailles or his fellow- worker Rousseau, to whom are du the exquisite bathing scenes in the Bains du Ro No work now remaining is held to equal in pei fection the boudoir carried out for Marie Aritoinett at Fontainebleau by Rousseau de la Rottiere, thoug there is a scarcely definable absence of the qualitie which have distinguished the greatest masters

he resemblance of this to the boudoir of the Larquise de Shrilly, now in the South Kensington [useum, is pointed out, and the history of the oudoir is given, together with proof that the esigns were long assigned in error to Natoire, len dead, and Fragonard. Many illustrations of tiis are given. Chap. v. is devoted to Jean Demos- tiene Dugourc and the influence of Madame de 'ompadour. Under Dugourc, while the general tyle lost breadth and nobility, the execution of very detail reached perfection. A comparison, laturally not wholly to his advantage, is instituted >etween him and Benvenuto Cellini. Specially nteresting is the chapter (vi.) on 'Pastorales, ^hinoiseries, Singeries,' at Chantilly and the Hotel .e Rohan, the latter, which is threatened with iestruction, being now the Imprimerie Nationale. Juite exquisite is the panel ' Le Chien BlesseY by /hristophe Huet ; and that of ' Le Tir k POiseau ' is nly inferior as regards the accessories, not the principal motive. Even more beautiful are the designs of Van Spaendonck for the boudoir of Mile. Duthe\ The destruction of precious objects under the Revolution has been continued into later years. The whole decoration of the Hotel Salm- Salm was swept away so late as 1871, and the boiseries of the Palais Royal were in the same year sold to the marchands auvergnats. With chap. vii. we come to Oudry and the Gobelins. Oudry is leld principally responsible for the marvellous falling off from the standard of the previous cen- bury. The fight between Oudry, who ultimately triumphed, and the workers of the tapestry, who protested against the compulsion under which they found themselves to copy exactly the colours of the painter-designers, is described with much anima- tion. Boucher succeeded, and though the charm of his designs and the gaiety of his colours exercised their influence, he maintained the heresy of Oudry. Among the designs of Boucher repro- duced is the medallion of Vertumnus and Pomone, executed in 1757. Specially interesting is the account of the destruction wrought in the Revolution, when, a tree of liberty having been planted in the Cour d'Honneur of the Gobelins, Belle, the director of the manufactory, made a bonfire of such sets of hangings as were held anti-republican or inartistic !

The Caffieri are the subject of a good chapter, and we then reach Andre Charles Boulle and Charles Cressent. Apropos of the productions of these great artists, Lady Dilke says that in those days the ostentatious and tasteless expenditure with which we are familiar was unknown, and " a ballet dancer would have despised presents such as we in London not many years ago saw laid upon the steps of the throne." Boulle's work is scarcely to be told from that of his imitators, a matter of less importance, since many of these are excellent. Cressent, who was ebeniste to the Duke of Orleans, is less familiar to the general public, his name appearing in few dictionaries. Special chapters are devoted to 'French Furniture made by Foreigners' and to ' Vernis-Martin,' and there are some valuable appendices, and a list of French cabinetmakers reproduced by permission from 4 Le Mobilier au XVII. et au XVIII. Siecle.'

The lesson taught in Lady Dilke's book is that the relative excellence of the works with whi^h she is concerned is to be found in the extent to which they possess the pre-eminent quality of style. Pale, colourless reflections of their pre- decessors, the financiers of to-day purchase at