Tester Bed (Lit à la Duchesse en Impériale)
•Maker: Georges Jacob (French, Cheny 1739-1814 Paris)
•Factory: Tapestry made at Beauvais
•Artist: After a design by Jean-Baptiste Huet I (French, Paris 1745-1811 Paris)
•Date: ca. 1782-83
•Culture: French, Paris
•Medium: Carved, painted and gilded walnut, pine, and linden; iron hardware; silk and wool Beauvais tapestry; modern silk damask
•Dimensions:
oOverall (bed components installed): 156¾ (Height) × 73½ (Width) × 86¾ in. (Depth) (398.1 × 186.7 × 220.3 cm);
oHeadboard: 79½ (Height) × 73½ in. (Width) (201.9 x 186.7 cm);
oTester at rectangular frame: 78 (Width) × (Depth) 90½ in. (198.1 x 229.9 cm);
oGreatest dims. of tester including protruding crestings: 17 (Height) × 96 (Width) × 99½ in. (Depth) (43.2 × 243.8 × 252.7 cm);
oHeight of Canopy from Floor: 156¾ in. (398.1cm)
oMatteress Support: 80 × 64 × 3½ in.
•Classification: Woodwork-Furniture
•Credit Line: Gift of Kingdon Gould, in memory of his mother, Edith Kingdon Gould, 1923
•Accession Number: 23.235a
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 523.
As its full-size domed canopy is suspended from the ceiling rather than supported on posts, this tester bed, which bears the stamp of the menuisier Georges Jacob, is a type called lit à la duchesse en impériale. Its original but now fragile hangings, woven in 1782-83 at the Beauvais tapestry manufactory after designs by Jean-Baptiste Huet (1745-1811), have been replaced by modern silk damask, except for the lining of the interior dome. French eighteenth-century beds tended to be lofty, as it was customary to pile them with three or more mattresses filled with straw, wool, horsehair, or feathers. Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) noted in 1766, “French beds are so high, that sometimes one is obliged to mount them by the help of steps.”[1]
The custom of receiving visitors while reposing in a large and elegantly fitted out bed was practiced in France during the eighteenth century mostly by aristocratic women. The Museum’s imposing piece of furniture with its exquisitely carved floral decoration, the work of an unknown carver, must have formed a splendid backdrop for such official calls or congratulatory visits. In 1791 the bed is documented as standing in the large bedchamber of Guyonne-Marguerite de Durfort de Lorge, duchesse de Choiseul-Praslin (1737-1806), at her Parisian home, the Hôtel de Belle Isle. Following the turmoil of the Revolution and the political changes of the early nineteenth century, the bed was sold in Paris in 1830. It became part of the famous collections at Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, the residence of Alexander Hamilton Douglas, tenth Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852), where it was placed in one of the state rooms. The duke’s grandson sold the contents of the palace, including the bed, at a highly anticipated auction that took place in 1882. Through the intermediation of several dealers, the bed was acquired in 1897 by the financier and railroad executive George J. Gould (1864-1923). His wife, the former actress Edith M. Kingdon (1864-1921), used it in her bedroom of their New York town house.
[Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, 2010]
Footnotes:
[1]Tobias George Smollett. Travels through France and Italy. London, 1766. New ed.: Introduction by James Morris. Travellers’ Classics 11. Fontwell, Sussex, 1969, p. 43.
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings
•Signature:
oStamped on Base of Headboard: G. IACOB
Provenance
Possibly ordered by comte César Gabriel Choiseul-Chevigny, 1st duc de Praslin; or ordered by comte Renaud César Louis Choiseul-Chevigny, 2nd duc de Praslin; duchesse de Choiseul-Praslin Guyonne-Marguerite de Durfort de Lorge, Hôtel de Belle-Isle, Paris (by 1791); [sale, Grand Bazar, Paris, July 12, 1830; to J.E. Quinet, for Alexander Hamilton] Douglas, tenth Duke of Hamilton (?); Dukes of Hamilton; William Alexander Louis Stephen Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton , Lanarkshire (until 1882; Hamilton Palace sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, July 18, 1882, lot 1912, for £ 1,155; to Edward Radley); [Edward Radley (in 1882)]; [Lowengard Frères (by 1893/94)] ; [Duveen Brothers (until 1897; sold September 1897, for $3,300 to George J. Gould)]; George Jay Gould (from 1897); Kingdon Gould (until 1923; to MMA)
Timeline of Art History
•Timelines
oFrance, 1600-1800 A.D.
Tapestry Lining for Tester (Ciel for Lit à la Duchesse en Impériale)
•Factory: Tapestry made at Beauvais
•Date: ca. 1780-1790
•Culture: French, Beauvais
•Medium: Silk and wool (20-25 warps per inch, 8-11 per centimeter)
•Dimensions:
oOverall: 87 (Height) × 72 in. (Width) (221 × 182.9 cm)
•Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
•Credit Line: Gift of Kingdon Gould, in memory of his mother, Edith Kingdon Gould, 1923
•Accession Number: 23.235e
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 523.
As its full-size domed canopy is suspended from the ceiling rather than supported on posts, this tester bed, which bears the stamp of the menuisier Georges Jacob, is a type called lit à la duchesse en impériale. Its original but now fragile hangings, woven in 1782-83 at the Beauvais tapestry manufactory after designs by Jean-Baptiste Huet (1745-1811), have been replaced by modern silk damask, except for the lining of the interior dome. French eighteenth-century beds tended to be lofty, as it was customary to pile them with three or more mattresses filled with straw, wool, horsehair, or feathers. Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) noted in 1766, “French beds are so high, that sometimes one is obliged to mount them by the help of steps.”[1]
The custom of receiving visitors while reposing in a large and elegantly fitted out bed was practiced in France during the eighteenth century mostly by aristocratic women. The Museum’s imposing piece of furniture with its exquisitely carved floral decoration, the work of an unknown carver, must have formed a splendid backdrop for such official calls or congratulatory visits. In 1791 the bed is documented as standing in the large bedchamber of Guyonne-Marguerite de Durfort de Lorge, duchesse de Choiseul-Praslin (1737-1806), at her Parisian home, the Hôtel de Belle Isle. Following the turmoil of the Revolution and the political changes of the early nineteenth century, the bed was sold in Paris in 1830. It became part of the famous collections at Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, the residence of Alexander Hamilton Douglas, tenth Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852), where it was placed in one of the state rooms. The duke’s grandson sold the contents of the palace, including the bed, at a highly anticipated auction that took place in 1882. Through the intermediation of several dealers, the bed was acquired in 1897 by the financier and railroad executive George J. Gould (1864-1923). His wife, the former actress Edith M. Kingdon (1864-1921), used it in her bedroom of their New York town house.
[Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, 2010]
Footnotes:
[1]Tobias George Smollett. Travels through France and Italy. London, 1766. New ed.: Introduction by James Morris. Travellers’ Classics 11. Fontwell, Sussex, 1969, p. 43.
Provenance
Dukes of Hamilton; William Alexander Louis Stephen Douglas-Hamilton, 12th Duke of Hamilton, Lanarkshire (until 1882; sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, July 18, 1882, no. 1912; to Radley); Edward Radley (in 1882); [Lowengard Frères (by 1893/94)]; Kingdon Gould (until 1923; to MMA)
Timeline of Art History
•Timelines
oFrance, 1600-1800 A.D.
Posted by Autistic Reality on 2018-11-10 19:53:01
Tagged: , Eighteenth-Century , Eighteenth-Century French Decorative Arts , The Lauzun Room , Lauzun , Room , Lauzun Room , French , France , Boiserie , Hotel , Hôtel Lauzun , Île Saint-Louis , Paris , Baron Jérôme-Frédéric Pichon , Jérôme-Frédéric , Pichon , Louis Pichon , Interior , Inside , Indoors , Structure , Downtown , Downstate , Metropolitan Museum , The Met , The Metropolitan Museum of Art , Metropolitan Museum of Art , Architecture , New York , New York State , New York City , State of New York , Building , Museum , Museums , Art , USA , US , United States , United States of America , America , New York County , Manhattan , Art Museum , Art Museums , Landmark , Central Park , Fifth Ave , Fifth Avenue , European Sculpture and Decorative Arts , Sculpture , Decorative , Arts , Europe , European Sculpture , European Decorative Arts , Decorative Arts , 2018
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