{"id":5433,"date":"2026-02-12T17:44:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/?post_type=newsletter&p=5433"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:37:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:37:03","slug":"painted-furniture","status":"publish","type":"newsletter","link":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/newsletter\/painted-furniture\/","title":{"rendered":"PAINTED FURNITURE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Ferdinand Bury (cabinetmaking attributed to), Jean-Louis Pr\u00e9vost (painted decoration attributed to), Jean-Baptiste II Tuart (probably delivered by), Low cabinet, from a pair<\/em>, detail, circa 1770\u20131775, Galerie L\u00e9age, formerly in the collection of Hannah Primerose, n\u00e9e Rothschild, at Mentmore Towers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second half of the eighteenth century, Parisian makers and dealers competed in inventiveness, creating furniture that was both original and at the forefront of taste. Among these productions, furniture painted in oil on sycamore maple veneer stands out as exceptionally rare and refined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ren\u00e9 Dubois (cabinetmaking attributed to), Secretary<\/em>, circa 1770\u20131780, Paris, Petit Palais \u2014 Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris (inv. ODUT1506)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A taste for richly colored furniture had been evident among Parisian collectors since the 1730s, following the popularization of European lacquer decoration by the Martin brothers. In the 1770s this enthusiasm intensified, and several cabinetmakers developed original decorative schemes using a variety of techniques. Ren\u00e9 Dubois (1737\u20131799) adorned his pieces with superb cama\u00efeu decorations or reproductions of easel paintings enhanced with vivid colors. Jean-Henri Riesener (1734\u20131806), for his part, had rich arabesques painted under glass for the doors of a cabinet delivered to the Comte d\u2019Orsay around 1770 (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, inv. OA 6523). Philippe Pasquier (master in 1760) followed their example for a secr\u00e9taire made for Madame du Barry, favorite of Louis XV (Metropolitan Museum, inv. 58.75.120): its fall-front and the fronts of the interior drawers are decorated with various scenes in gouache, pastel, and watercolor placed under glass. Within this varied production, a rare group of pieces painted in oil on sycamore maple veneer distinguishes itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00c9tienne-Louis Boull\u00e9e, Design for a chest of drawers<\/em>, circa 1770\u20131780, Paris, \u00c9cole nationale sup\u00e9rieure des beaux-arts (inv. no. O1084)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joseph Baumhauer (cabinetmaking), Jean-Louis Pr\u00e9vost (painted decoration), Chest of drawers, delivered to Nicolas Beaujon at the H\u00f4tel d\u2019\u00c9vreux<\/em>, circa 1770, Rome, Terruzzi Collection<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1773 Nicolas Beaujon, banker to the King and the Court, acquired the H\u00f4tel d\u2019\u00c9vreux \u2014 former residence of Madame de Pompadour and today the Palais de l\u2019\u00c9lys\u00e9e. He entrusted its refurbishment to the architect \u00c9tienne-Louis Boull\u00e9e (1728\u20131799), who appears to have overseen both the architectural works and the interior decoration. The idea for particularly original furniture seems to have emerged at this moment, whether at the initiative of Beaujon or his architect. Satin-grained sycamore maple veneer, delicately painted in oil with floral motifs, was selected for several pieces, including a chest of drawers and two secr\u00e9taires en armoire. A drawing by Boull\u00e9e defines the general silhouette of the chest of drawers, still known today and preserved in Rome in the Terruzzi Collection. Stamped by the cabinetmaker Joseph Baumhauer (1747\u20131772), it was oil painted by Jean-Louis Pr\u00e9vost (1740\u20131810), a painter of still lifes. One of the secr\u00e9taires from this ensemble is probably the example now preserved at Waddesdon Manor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joseph Baumhauer (cabinetmaking attributed to), Louis-\u00c9tienne Boull\u00e9e (possibly after a design by), Jean-Louis Pr\u00e9vost (possibly painted by), Fall-front desk<\/em>, probably delivered for Nicolas Beaujon to the H\u00f4tel d\u2019\u00c9vreux<\/em>, circa 1770, Aylesbury, Waddesdon Manor (inv. 3160)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fashion for furniture painted on sycamore maple veneer was thus launched in Paris. Other dealers adopted the idea, notably the marchand-\u00e9b\u00e9niste Jean-Baptiste II Tuart (Master in 1752). A coordinator \u2014 whether merchant or architect \u2014 was essential to the creation of these works, which required the collaboration of a cabinetmaker and a painter, further enriched with gilt-bronze mounts and marble tops. Tuart commissioned Ferdinand Bury (1740\u20131795) to create a chiffonnier now in a private collection bearing both their stamps. A few other rare examples are known, including two pairs of cabinets from Mentmore Towers, a demi-lune chest of drawers stamped by Jacques-Laurent Cosson (Master in 1765), a pair of low cupboards in private hands, and a pair of Consulate-period consoles now in the collections of the Banque de France. Executed around 1800, the latter mark the end of this highly limited production, which can be reduced to scarcely more than a dozen recorded examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cabinet, from a pair<\/em>, circa 1770\u20131775, formerly in the collection of Hannah Primerose, n\u00e9e Rothschild, at Mentmore Towers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These pieces offer an original interpretation of the neoclassical aesthetic. Their often strictly geometric forms reveal the rigor and clarity of line characteristic of the period. Their decoration recalls the arabesques and delicate floral motifs found on contemporary textiles and porcelains. They were clearly conceived to harmonize with similarly ornamented paneling schemes. At the Palais Bourbon, the Prince de Cond\u00e9 owned a boudoir painted by Deleuze in imitation of tulipwood and porcelain tiles decorated with flowers, furnished with a secr\u00e9taire painted to echo those same motifs. Likewise, a set of arabesque-decorated paneling from the Folie Beaujon \u2014 a pavilion built by the financier in the Faubourg du Roule \u2014 may be compared with the surviving chest of drawers and secr\u00e9taire, where the same garlands of flowers and compositions arranged in large blue vases appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ferdinand Bury (cabinetmaking attributed to), Jean-Louis Pr\u00e9vost (painted decoration attributed to), Jean-Baptiste II Tuart (probably delivered by), Pair of low cabinets<\/em>, circa 1770\u20131775, Galerie L\u00e9age, former collection of Hannah Primerose, n\u00e9e Rothschild, at Mentmore Towers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rare since the moment of their creation, these pieces rank today among the most exceptional survivals of Parisian decorative refinement in the 1770s. Galerie L\u00e9age will present two cabinets from this remarkable group at its stand at TEFAF Maastricht, offering a remarkable opportunity to rediscover this distinctive and highly refined production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography:<\/strong>
Catalogue collection, 18e<\/sup>. Aux sources du design<\/em>, \u00c9ditions Faton, 2014
B. G. B. Pallot, \u00ab Les meubles peints sur fond d\u2019\u00e9rable sycomore \u00bb, Connaissance des Arts<\/em>, f\u00e9vrier 1987, pp. 98\u2013107.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the second half of the eighteenth century, Parisian makers and dealers competed in inventiveness, creating furniture that was both original and at the forefront of taste. Among these productions, furniture painted in oil on sycamore maple veneer stands out as exceptionally rare and refined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5415,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","inline_featured_image":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5433","newsletter","type-newsletter","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"url_news1":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":438,"key":"field_64c00914a1189","label":"URL","name":"url_news1","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"url","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":437,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"only_front":0,"frontend_admin_display_mode":"edit","no_values_message":"","wp-typography":"none","default_value":"","placeholder":"","wpml_cf_preferences":1,"_name":"url_news1","_valid":1}}},"mcc_id":null,"mcc_type":null,"mcc_status":null,"mcc_create_time":null,"mcc_send_time":null,"mcc_emails_sent":null,"mcc_delivery_status":null,"mcc_content_type":null,"mcc_archive_url":null,"mcc_long_archive_url":null,"mcc_plain_text":null,"mcc_content_html":null,"mcc_recipients":null,"mcc_list_id":null,"mcc_list_name":null,"mcc_segment_text":null,"mcc_recipient_count":null,"mcc_settings":null,"mcc_tracking":null,"mcc_social_card":null,"mcc_report_summary":null,"mcc___links":null,"mcc__edit_lock":null,"mcc__edit_last":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newsletter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5433"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5941,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5433\/revisions\/5941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}