Gérard Henri Lutz (stamped by), Pierre Macret (most likely made by), Manufacture de la Petite Pologne (lacquered tin plate), Lacquered tin plate chest of drawers, detail, circa 1770, former Galerie Léage collection
A dreamlike vision of a distant, opulent world, chinoiserie played a defining aesthetic role in the decorative arts of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Johan Nieuhoff, “The Jokers,” Embassy of the United Provinces’ East India Company to the Emperor of China, 1665, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France
Fascinating the West since the publication of Marco Polo’s travel accounts in the 14th century, “the Indies” fired the imagination of European artists and collectors. Under this single term they grouped China, Japan, India, the Americas, and even Turkey. The 1665 publication of Johan Nieuhoff’s illustrated travel journal further fueled this enthusiasm. In France, major collections were assembled, often enriched by visits from Asian embassies. King Louis XIV adorned his apartments with furniture and works of art “from China.” Around 1670 he commissioned the Trianon de porcelaine in the gardens of Versailles—a marvelous pavilion clad in blue-and-white ceramic tiles inspired by Chinese porcelain. From the late 17th century onward, and throughout the 18th, collectors created “Chinese cabinets” in their apartments: adorned with painted wallpapers, porcelains, and lacquered furniture, these intimate rooms invited reverie and wonder. Whether imported from Asia or made in France “in the Chinese style,” the objects they contained reflected and refined the taste for chinoiserie.
Adam Pérelle, Perspective view of the Trianon de porcelaine from the garden side, 1680–1684, Paris, National Library of France
Chinoiserie first expressed itself through direct or imaginative reinterpretations of Asian ornament. Silks, imported in great quantities from the East, became key vehicles for these motifs, inspiring French manufactories and ornament designers. The latter published precious pattern books offering full repertoires of Chinese-style designs. The Livre de dessins chinois (1735) by Antoine Fraisse (1680–1739) and the numerous “Chinese” design albums issued by Jean Pillement (1728–1808) in the second half of the century were rich sources of invention. Some historians even attribute the irregularity and “whimsicality” of Chinese motifs with helping to shape the Rocaille taste of the 1720s. Interiors soon filled with small Chinese figures, pagodas, and dragons. Scenes of daily life were also reinterpreted: the pot-pourri à vaisseau made by the Sèvres manufactory for the Marquise de Pompadour’s bedroom at the Hôtel d’Évreux was painted by Charles-Nicolas Dodin (1734–1803) with a charming vignette of three Chinese men playing go on one side, and flowers in the kakiemon style on the other.
Manufacture de Sèvres, Jean-Claude-Thomas Duplessis (after), Charles-Nicolas Dodin (painter), Potpourri “à vaisseau,” delivered to Madame de Pompadour for her bedroom at the Hôtel d’Evreux in 1760, Paris, Louvre Museum (inv. OA 10965)
© 2013 Musée du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Thierry Ollivier
Europe’s fascination with Asian objects inspired craftsmen to reproduce them. Lacquer was the first to be imitated. At the Gobelins manufactory, a workshop dedicated to “works in the Chinese style” was created under Louis XIV and, from 1713, directed by the master varnisher Jacques Dagly (1669–1729). The royal Manufacture de vernis façon de la Chine of the Martin brothers, founded in 1748, also achieved great success. They decorated the Dauphine’s apartments at Versailles with magnificent varnished paneling. Lacquer painters embellished furniture with remarkable decorations “in the Chinese taste”: the commode of Madame de Mailly, delivered to Choisy in 1743 and adorned with a sumptuous blue-and-white décor of exotic landscapes, is an emblematic example of this lacquered furniture. A few exceptional examples of furniture veneered with lacquered sheet metal in the Chinese style are also known. A chest of drawers, probably from the collections of the Marquise de Béringhen and formerly in the collections of the Léage gallery, features a delicate decoration of Japanese fans. Chinese-inspired motifs and techniques can be found on this piece of furniture.
Gérard Henri Lutz (stamped by), Pierre Macret (most likely made by), Manufacture de la Petite Pologne (lacquered tin plate), Lacquered tin plate chest of drawers, circa 1770, former Galerie Léage collection
Collectors’ passion for porcelain likewise drove European manufactories to innovate. The secret of producing this “white gold” was discovered in Germany in 1709. In France, the manufactories of Chantilly, Saint-Cloud, and Vincennes-Sèvres first produced soft-paste porcelain before uncovering the secret of hard-paste porcelain in the second half of the century. Asian forms and motifs were adapted to French customs, and services for chocolate, coffee, and lunch were produced in abundance.
Sèvres manufactory, Jean-Claude Duplessis (after), Vase with elephant head, from a pair, 1758, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 58.75.90)
In Paris, the marchands merciers—“makers of nothing, sellers of everything”—played a central role in spreading the taste for chinoiserie. They acquired Asian treasures at major collection sales—porcelains, celadons, lacquer boxes and caskets—and had them mounted in sumptuous gilt-bronze settings or incorporated directly into fine furniture. The dealer Edme-François Gersaint (1694–1750) named his celebrated shop À la pagode, giving it an aura of sought-after exoticism. Lazare Duvaux (c.1703–1758) supplied the Marquise de Pompadour and other illustrious clients with splendid mounted porcelains and furniture veneered with luxurious Japanese lacquer, entrusting their creation to renowned cabinetmakers such as Bernard II van Riesenburgh (1700–1760).
Martin Carlin, Chest of drawers veneered with Japanese lacquer, delivered by the merchant Darnault for Madame Victoire’s large study at the Château de Bellevue, circa 1785, Paris, Musée du Louvre (inv. OA 5498)
© 2012 Musée du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Thierry Ollivier
The influence of chinoiserie on French decorative arts in the 17th and 18th centuries was profound. Helping to shape the Rocaille style and inspiring new creativity in the manufactories, it gave rise to true masterpieces. Its influence spread elsewhere in Europe, particularly in England, where Chippendale design drew upon its forms and motifs for inspiration of striking originality.
Bibliography:
Georges Brunel, Hélène Chollet, Valérie Montalbetti, Pagodes et dragons. Exotisme et fantaisie dans l’Europe rococo, 1720–1770. Musée Cernuschi, Paris-Musées, 2007
Thibaut Wolversperges, Le Meuble français en laque au XVIIIe siècle, Éditions Racines, 2000.
Madeleine Jarry, Chinoiseries. Le rayonnement du goût chinois sur les arts décoratifs des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Office du Livre, 1981
Marx Jacques. De la Chine à la chinoiserie. Échanges culturels entre la Chine, l’Europe et les Pays-Bas méridionaux (XVIIe- XVIIIe siècles). In: Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire, tome 85, fasc. 3–4, 2007. pp. 735–77
