BACK TO GALLERY
Galerie Léage
Georges Jacob
SET OF TEN MAHOGANY DINING CHAIRS
Mahogany chairs carved with Etruscan motifs and resting on animal-like legs.
Height: 95 cm – 36 1⁄4 inches Width : 47 cm – 19 3⁄4 inches. Depth : 43 cm – 18 1⁄2 inches
description
The reference to the Antique period
This model of seat illustrates the decorative vogue at the end of the 18th century, directly inspired by the antique revival, and already announcing the Empire style. Culmination of the Louis XVI style, the use of animal legs and plain mahogany is characteristic of this period and refers directly to the antique furniture discovered during the excavations carried out at Herculaneum (Cervi mansion) and Pompeii, thus recalling the color of the metals and the base of the latter. Inspired by lion or bear claws, they were declined in all decorative arts but are more rarely composed with opposed side legs. Moreover, the presence of “in hock” legs, both in the front and the back, is rarely found in carpentry. Other seats have been made at that time with this particularity: certain rest beds stamped by Molitor, but also on a series of eight bergèrearmchairs stamped by Jean-Baptiste Sené, in the past in the Rothschild collections at the Hotel Lambert.
Jean-Demosthène Dugourc (1749-1825)
The development of a new style, in which antiquity is treated more archeologically than before, have been possible with the collaboration and the friendship links between ornementalists and carpenters. These seats could thus be the fruit of the relationships built by Jean-Demosthène Dugourc with the Jacob brothers since both lived in the rue Meslay during the years 1780-1785. It is therefore likely that contact between them was frequent.
Working for the Duke of Orléans, the father of Jean-Demosthène Dugourc possessed an honorable fortune that allowed his son to share his studies with the Duke of Chartres. At the age of fifteen, in 1764, Jean-Demosthène made a short stay in Rome, accompanied by the Ambassy of the Count of Cani, where he discovered antiquity. Thanks to his union with the sister of François-Joseph Bélanger, architect of the Count of Artois (future Charles X), Dugourc became the draftsman of Monsieur. As soon as 1784, he was received dessinateur du Garde- Meuble de la Couronne1, and intendant des bâtiments du Roi. Quickly known throughout Europe, he received orders for drawings for the King of Sweden, the Grand Duke of Russia, Paul I, or the Empress Catherine the Great. Contributing very early to the return of neoclassical taste by his drawings of arabesques and interiors in the Etruscan style, he published six plates of engraved arabesques that he was the first to introduce in architecture but also furniture, draperies and fabrics.
The revolution put an end to these prestigious orders and Dugourc then worked for a wallpaper manufactory, invented models for playing cards or letterheads. In 1799, he settled in Spain, working for one of the residences of the royal family, the Casa del Labrador in Aranjuez, and for the Duchesses of Alba and Osuna. Dugourc returned to France in 1814: the ascension to the throne of his former mentor made him regain his title of dessinateur du Garde-Meuble until his death in 1825.
This model of seat illustrates the decorative vogue at the end of the 18th century, directly inspired by the antique revival, and already announcing the Empire style. Culmination of the Louis XVI style, the use of animal legs and plain mahogany is characteristic of this period and refers directly to the antique furniture discovered during the excavations carried out at Herculaneum (Cervi mansion) and Pompeii, thus recalling the color of the metals and the base of the latter. Inspired by lion or bear claws, they were declined in all decorative arts but are more rarely composed with opposed side legs. Moreover, the presence of “in hock” legs, both in the front and the back, is rarely found in carpentry. Other seats have been made at that time with this particularity: certain rest beds stamped by Molitor, but also on a series of eight bergèrearmchairs stamped by Jean-Baptiste Sené, in the past in the Rothschild collections at the Hotel Lambert.
Jean-Demosthène Dugourc (1749-1825)
The development of a new style, in which antiquity is treated more archeologically than before, have been possible with the collaboration and the friendship links between ornementalists and carpenters. These seats could thus be the fruit of the relationships built by Jean-Demosthène Dugourc with the Jacob brothers since both lived in the rue Meslay during the years 1780-1785. It is therefore likely that contact between them was frequent.
Working for the Duke of Orléans, the father of Jean-Demosthène Dugourc possessed an honorable fortune that allowed his son to share his studies with the Duke of Chartres. At the age of fifteen, in 1764, Jean-Demosthène made a short stay in Rome, accompanied by the Ambassy of the Count of Cani, where he discovered antiquity. Thanks to his union with the sister of François-Joseph Bélanger, architect of the Count of Artois (future Charles X), Dugourc became the draftsman of Monsieur. As soon as 1784, he was received dessinateur du Garde- Meuble de la Couronne1, and intendant des bâtiments du Roi. Quickly known throughout Europe, he received orders for drawings for the King of Sweden, the Grand Duke of Russia, Paul I, or the Empress Catherine the Great. Contributing very early to the return of neoclassical taste by his drawings of arabesques and interiors in the Etruscan style, he published six plates of engraved arabesques that he was the first to introduce in architecture but also furniture, draperies and fabrics.
The revolution put an end to these prestigious orders and Dugourc then worked for a wallpaper manufactory, invented models for playing cards or letterheads. In 1799, he settled in Spain, working for one of the residences of the royal family, the Casa del Labrador in Aranjuez, and for the Duchesses of Alba and Osuna. Dugourc returned to France in 1814: the ascension to the throne of his former mentor made him regain his title of dessinateur du Garde-Meuble until his death in 1825.
SEND AN EMAIL
+33 1 45 63 43 46