France, circa 1800
Manufacture de la Savonnerie
Drawing of the tapestry “Rose à la mosaïque”
Attributed to Jean-Baptiste Blain de Fontenay (1653−1715)
Wool
Similar examples:
- Manufacture de la Savonnerie, Set of six folding screens, delivered for the vestibules of the Château de Marly by the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne on 26 October 1709, 30 January 1709 and 3 March 1710
- Manufacture de la Savonnerie, Folding screen, London, private collection
Close examples:
- Manufacture de la Savonnerie, Fireplace screen, before 1703, Aylesbury, James A. de Rothschild Collection, Waddesdon Manor (inv. 2359)
- Manufacture de la Savonnerie, Two-leaf screen, Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte
Each fold presents a rich ornamentation on a light blue ground in a yellow-golden trompe- l’oeil frame. The ornamentation is composed of a central red and blue fan shaped motif in a four-lobed reserve, above a fruit basket with a red and a grey squirrel. The upper part displays a flower basket with a parrot ant two garlands, flanked by two other parrots in the upper right and left corners.
The first tapestries depicting this drawing and for making screens have been performed in Chaillot workshops in 1707. The description of six screens delivered to the vestibules of the Château de Marly by the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne on January 30, 1709, October 26, 1709, and March 3, 1710, is similar to this screen:
“ Un paravent de six feuilles, couvertes des deux côtés d’ouvrage de laine de la Savonnerie et garni d’un galon d’or cloué : chaque feuille représentant au milieu une rose à la mosaïque sur fond blanc : en bas un panier de fruit accompagné de deux écureuils, au-dessus deux guirlandes de fleurs et fruits au naturel. En haut un panier de fleurs, le tout sur fond bleu, enfermé d’un listel jaune, sur lequel listel sont posés des perroquets verts sur fond pourpre qui règne autour : le paravent haut de 4 pieds un pouce11. ”
Manufacture de la Savonnerie
Introduced in France by the upholsterer Pierre Dupont welcomed to the Louvre by Henri IV, the craft of rug lockstitch “way of Turkey and the Levant” took off under Louis XIII, when Simon Lourdet, a Dupont’s apprentice, created in turn under royal patronage, a workshop in the building of the Manufacture de la Savonier located in Chaillot. The factory, now known as Manufacture de la Savonnerie, reached its heyday during the reign of Louis XIV, under the direction of Charles Le Brun. Its production was then reserved for the king for the furnishing his residences or diplomatic presents. One of the largest and earliest works was a set of 93 carpets each measuring 9 meters long for the Grande Galerie in the Louvre made during fifteen years from 1668, and which remains testimonies spread in various museums (Museum Nissim de Camondo, the Louvre, etc.)
If the principal works from this factory are carpets, it also produces numerous trims seats and screens. Attached to the Gobelins she became a special workshop in 1825, she came to live in 1826 in the pen Gobelins where even today it continues its activity.
Bibliography
- Stéphane Casteluccio, Le château de Marly sous le règne de Louis XVI, étude du décor et de l’ameublement des appartements du Pavillon royal sous le règne de Louis XVI, Paris, RMN, 1996, p. 56.
- Jean Coural, Les Gobelins, Beauvais, la Savonnerie, Paris, 1976.
- Pierre Verlet, The James A. de Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor, The Savonnerie, its history the Waddesdon collection, Fribourg, 1982, p. 325–329.
Measurements:
- Height: 55 inches – 140 cm
- Length of one leaf: 24 inches – 61 cm
