{"id":6167,"date":"2026-06-04T11:25:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/?post_type=newsletter&p=6167"},"modified":"2026-06-04T11:25:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:25:05","slug":"bernard-i-van-riesen-burghvers-1660-1738","status":"publish","type":"newsletter","link":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/newsletter\/bernard-i-van-riesen-burghvers-1660-1738\/","title":{"rendered":"BERNARD I VAN RIESEN BURGH(vers 1660\u20131738)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh, Desk<\/em>, detail, circa 1715\u20131720, Galerie L\u00e9age<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Less well known than his son, the famous \u201cBVRB,\u201d Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh was nonetheless one of the foremost cabinetmakers of the late reign of Louis XIV and the R\u00e9gence period. His marquetry work, of exceptional richness, attracted a distinguished clientele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh, Chest of Drawers, made for President Louis-Charles de Machault<\/em>, circa 1719, private collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh was born in Groningen, in the northern Netherlands, around 1660. He came to Paris to practice the cabinetmaking trade before 1694, settling in the faubourg Saint-Antoine, a neighborhood home to many craftsmen of Dutch and Germanic origin. Initially working as a free artisan of the faubourg, he purchased his mastership in the cabinetmakers\u2019 guild around 1710, bypassing the apprenticeship system then in use. A highly skilled craftsman, he quickly built a strong reputation and attracted a distinguished clientele. His 1738 post-mortem inventory sheds light on the state of his workshop at the close of his career: it still housed seven workbenches \u2014 an important number for his specialty \u2014 and by that point produced nothing but clock cases. The scale of his workshop is further reflected in his choice of collaborators: he appointed Adrien Dubois as workshop foreman, while the latter\u2019s brother Fran\u00e7ois served as \u201cengraver, cutter, and marquetry worker.\u201d His principal bronze-chaser, Louis Blondel, also worked for Antoine-Robert Gaudreaus (1680\u20131746) and Gilles Joubert (1689\u20131775), two other leading cabinetmakers of the Age of Enlightenment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh, \u201cMazarin\u201d desk, made for the Duchesse de Retz<\/em>, circa 1695, London, Buckingham Palace (inv. RCIN 39213)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the 1690s, Van Riesen Burgh produced exceptionally luxurious furniture in metal and tortoiseshell marquetry, frequently enhanced with mother-of-pearl and tinted horn ornaments. The desk he made for the Duchesse de Retz is a particularly fine example of this Louis XIV furniture, innovative in both its lines and its ornamentation. Its \u00ab mazarin \u00bb form had been developed only a decade earlier. The sides of the piece are adorned with original trompe-l\u2019\u0153il niches set in relief, while elaborate corbels punctuate each elevation. Destined for the duchess\u2019s magnificent private mansion in the lower Marais, it must have been one of the centerpieces of what Saint-Simon described as a \u201cfairy palace.\u201d Van Riesen Burgh produced several pieces of the same type during this period, including a near-identical example now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, made for Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh (attributed to), \u201cMazarin\u201d desk belonging to Elector Maximilian II Emmanuel of Bavaria<\/em>, circa 1700, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum (inv. 87.DA.77)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Exiled in Paris during the final years of Louis XIV\u2019s reign, amid the War of the Spanish Succession, Maximilian II Emanuel developed a marked taste for French furniture. He placed orders with the most celebrated Parisian craftsmen through the dealer Edme Calley. Calley\u2019s shop, Au Roy d\u2019Espagne<\/em>, on the rue de la Monnaie, was one of the most fashionable in Paris during the 1710s, drawing a wealthy clientele. Around 1714, the Elector of Bavaria commissioned an equestrian statue from Calley, the base of which was entrusted to Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh. The cabinetmaker brought a renewed aesthetic sensibility to the piece: the delicate copper marquetry on brown tortoiseshell, combined with richly gilded and finely chased bronze mounts, speaks to the emerging R\u00e9gence taste. Further commissions followed, most notably the superb \u00ab \u00e0 gradins \u00bb desk that brought together S\u00e9bastien Slodtz (1655\u20131726) for the bronzes and Van Riesen Burgh for the cabinetwork. Its highly original form and exceptional quality of execution make it one of the finest pieces from the very beginning of the R\u00e9gence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacques Gosselin (clockmaking), Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh (cabinetmaking attributed to), S\u00e9bastien Slodtz (bronzes attributed to), Tiered desk, made for Elector Maximilian II Emmanuel of Bavaria,<\/em> circa 1714, Paris, Mus\u00e9e du Louvre (inv. OA 9538)
\u00a9 2012 Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn \/ Thierry Ollivier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The work of Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh is distinguished by rich tortoiseshell and metal marquetry, informed by a learned iconographic repertoire. He drew on prints as sources for his compositions, most notably those of the celebrated Jean B\u00e9rain (1640\u20131711), as well as the Emblemata Amatoria<\/em>, published in Amsterdam in 1608. His marquetry panels are populated with recurring allegories and symbols. The obelisk entwined with ivy and the allegory of Abundance appear on several of his works, including the two desks made for the Elector of Bavaria mentioned above. Van Riesen Burgh also introduced a rich fantastical bestiary into his decorative schemes. On a desk from the gallery\u2019s collection, birds, figures in exotic dress, hunters, arabesques, and imaginary architectural landscapes unfold a wondrous world against a ground of brown tortoiseshell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh, Desk<\/em>, detail, circa 1715\u20131720, Galerie L\u00e9age<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh remained active until his death in 1738, and ranks among the last cabinetmakers to work in metallic marquetry during the reign of Louis XV. His son, Bernard II Van Riesen Burgh, established his own cabinetmaking workshop before his father\u2019s death. Rather than continuing his father\u2019s work, he embraced a fully developed rocaille sensibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Bibliography:<\/strong>
Calin Demetrescu, Les \u00e9b\u00e9nistes de la Couronne sous le r\u00e8gne de Louis XIV<\/em>, La Biblioth\u00e8que des Arts, Lausanne, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-N\u00e9r\u00e9e Ronfort, \u00ab Bernard I Van Risamburgh (c. 1660\u20131738) \u00bb, dans Andr\u00e9-Charles Boulle (1642\u22121732). Un nouveau style pour l\u2019Europe<\/em>, cat. exp. Paris, mus\u00e9e des Arts D\u00e9coratifs \/ Somogy \u00e9ditions d\u2019art, 2009, pp. 96\u2013100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-N\u00e9r\u00e9e Ronfort et Jean-Dominique Augarde, \u00ab Le ma\u00eetre du bureau de l\u2019\u00c9lecteur \u00bb, L\u2019Estampille\/L\u2019Objet d\u2019Art<\/em>, n\u00b0 221, janvier 1991, pp. 42\u201375.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

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Less well known than his son, the famous \u201cBVRB,\u201d Bernard I Van Riesen Burgh was nonetheless one of the foremost cabinetmakers of the late reign of Louis XIV and the R\u00e9gence period. His marquetry work, of exceptional richness, attracted a distinguished clientele.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6168,"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-6167","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\/6167","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=6167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/6167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6180,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/6167\/revisions\/6180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}