{"id":5494,"date":"2026-02-19T10:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T09:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/?post_type=newsletter&p=5494"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:36:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:36:46","slug":"charles-cressent1685-1768","status":"publish","type":"newsletter","link":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/newsletter\/charles-cressent1685-1768\/","title":{"rendered":"CHARLES CRESSENT(1685\u20131768)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Charles Cressent, Chest of drawers with crossed palms and dragons<\/em>, detail, circa 1745\u20131750, Galerie L\u00e9age<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A master bronzier and cabinetmaker, Charles Cressent established himself in the first half of the eighteenth century as one of the most celebrated artisans working in Paris. By uniting these two professions, he created furniture of remarkable luxury and originality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joseph Poitou (cabinetmaking attributed to), Charles Cressent (bronzes attributed to), Chest of drawers<\/em>, Louis XIV period, first quarter of the 18th<\/sup> century, Galerie L\u00e9age<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Amiens in 1685, Cressent was the grandson of a joiner and the son of a sculptor. He thus received a dual training and, in 1714, was received Master sculptor in Paris. Specializing in the chasing of fine bronzes, he first worked for the sculptor Fran\u00e7ois Girardon (1628\u20131715). Joseph Poitou (1682\u20131719), rival of the great cabinetmaker and bronze maker Andr\u00e9-Charles Boulle (1642\u20131732), subsequently employed him to execute the bronze mounts for his furniture. Upon Poitou\u2019s death in 1719, Cressent married his widow and took over his workshop in the rue Jonquelet. He thereafter both designed and executed the cabinetry and the gilt-bronze mounts for his furniture \u2014 an almost unique situation in the eighteenth century.
In his shop, he displayed the luxurious pieces he produced alongside Old Master paintings, medals, ivories and other precious objects from his own private collection. A virtuoso creator, Cressent was also a cultivated man and a discerning collector. Several sales of his collections, held in 1748, 1756 and 1765, testify to their exceptional quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charles Cressent (attributed to), Flat desk with \u201cespagnolettes\u201d<\/em>, circa 1720\u20131725, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum (inv. 67.DA.10)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pieces from his stock were also offered in these auctions. The sale catalogues provide detailed descriptions of his furniture and today enable scholars to attribute works to him despite the absence of a maker\u2019s stamp. Throughout his career, Cressent devised several distinctive models \u2014 notably highly original clocks and firedogs \u2014 and produced numerous chests of drawers, cupboards and writing tables. He was particularly fond of veneer marquetry in geometric patterns or frisage<\/em>. Playing with the grain of tulipwood, amaranth and satinwood, he created restrained yet elegant compositions. Arranged in diamond-point or butterfly-wing patterns, these designs enhance the gilt-bronze mounts, sometimes framed with amaranth filets. Cressent was also among the first to use satinwood veneers, notably in the two-drawer, two-door chest now preserved in the Mus\u00e9e du Louvre (inv. OA 10900).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charles Cressent, Cupboard<\/em>, 1740\u20131760, Paris, Mus\u00e9e du Louvre (inv. OA 10582)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2010 Mus\u00e9e du Louvre \/ D\u00e9partement des Objets d\u2019art du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the prohibition imposed by the guild of joiner-cabinetmakers against practicing two professions \u2014 and the disputes that followed \u2014 Cressent continued throughout his career to create the gilt-bronze mounts for his own furniture. He accorded them particular prominence, thereby distinguishing himself from his contemporaries. As a bronzier, he deployed remarkable inventiveness in the service of a powerful yet balanced rocaille taste. Floral ornaments, pierced clasps and scrolling foliage appear throughout his work. He developed several original motifs, such as the female busts known as \u201cespagnolettes\u201d, which adorn many of the corner mounts of his desks, as well as compositions featuring monkeys in a characteristically rocaille exoticism. Cressent also populated his mounts with fantastic creatures: between 1745 and 1750, a remarkable group of chests of drawers known as the \u201ccrossed palm and dragons\u201d model was produced in his workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charles Cressent, Jean Godde the Elder (clockmaker), Cartel clock<\/em>, circa 1740\u20131745, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Arts (inv. 1971.206.27)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cressent enjoyed an important clientele, including some of the most discerning collectors of the eighteenth century. Privileged cabinetmaker to the Regent, Philippe II, Duc d\u2019Orl\u00e9ans, at the beginning of his career, he later developed a distinguished private clientele \u2014 including the Marquis de Marigny and his sister Madame de Pompadour, the Duc de Richelieu, as well as numerous members of the aristocracy and the financial elite. He also occasionally sold his works through marchands merciers<\/em> or fellow cabinetmakers such as Antoine-Robert Gaudreaux (c. 1680\u20131746). His reputation in Paris was firmly established by the 1720s, and the resounding success of his various sales only reinforced it. His talent was repeatedly praised by Parisian men of letters; in his Nouvelles litt\u00e9raires<\/em> (1749), in a chapter devoted to the great sculptors of the time, the abb\u00e9 Raynal wrote that Cressent \u201cdeserves a place among the great French artists<\/em>\u201d and that he \u201chas succeeded to the reputation of the famous Boulle<\/em>.\u201d His renown even extended beyond France: King Jo\u00e3o V of Portugal, Charles-Albert, Elector of Bavaria, and Queen Charlotte of Great Britain all owned pieces from his workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charles Cressent, Chest of drawers with crossed palms and dragons<\/em>, circa 1745\u20131750, Galerie L\u00e9age<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A distinguished bronzier and cabinetmaker, Charles Cressent created furniture of exceptional luxury in the eighteenth century. One of the commodes from the celebrated \u201ccrossed palm and dragons\u201d group will be on view on our stand at TEFAF Maastricht, 14\u201319 March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography:<\/strong>
Alexandre Prad\u00e8re, Charles Cressent<\/em>, \u00c9ditions Faton, 2003.
Fran\u00e7ois de Salverte, Les \u00e9b\u00e9nistes fran\u00e7ais du XVIIIe<\/sup> si\u00e8cle<\/em>, Paris, \u00c9ditions d\u2019art et d\u2019histoire, 1934.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A master bronzier and cabinetmaker, Charles Cressent established himself in the first half of the eighteenth century as one of the most celebrated artisans working in Paris. By uniting these two professions, he created furniture of remarkable luxury and originality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5472,"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-5494","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\/5494","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=5494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5940,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5494\/revisions\/5940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}