Category: Museum

Rococo

Posted on Posted in 18th Century, Decorative Arts, Louvre, Matthieu Criaerd, Museum2 Comments
Estampillée : Matthieu Criaerd, 1742
Commode Painted in Vernis Martin, Wood, 85 x 132 x 64 Wood, 85 x 132 x 64
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Commode
Louis XV acquired the Château de Choisy in 1739. The furniture in the Blue Room (commissioned from the marchand mercier Hébert) was designed to match some blue silk woven by the king’s mistress, Madame de Mailly, and to suit her taste for oriental art. Hébert had the commode and encoignure (corner cabinet) for the room made by cabinetmaker Matthieu Criaerd. The commode is a fine example of Criaerd’s work.
 
The Blue Room at the Château de Choisy
Madame de Mailly’s room was elaborately furnished in 1742. Louis XV’s mistress had given the king some silk that she had woven; this was made into blue and white striped moiré, and was used in the room which was then painted blue and white. The marchand mercier Hébert and the upholsterer Sallior were given the task of producing the furniture, which was to suit both the colors of the silk and Madame de Mailly’s taste for chinoiserie.
 
The production of the furniture
Although the marchand mercier Hébert was entrusted with producing the furniture, a commode veneered with Chinese lacquer was first delivered by his colleague Julliot. Hébert therefore made furniture to match this commode — provisional items, no doubt, which were subsequently replaced by the blue and white furniture which confirms Madame de Mailly’s pronounced taste for objects of oriental inspiration, reflected throughout her decorative scheme. Hébert provided blue and white China porcelain for the same apartment, together with silver-plated andirons decorated with figures of Chinese children. Hébert entrusted the production of the blue furniture to cabinetmaker Mattheu Criaerd.
 
A commode typical of Criaerd’s work
Matthieu Criaerd produced a commode and encoignure (corner cabinet) which are now in the Louvre. The commode, with its curved legs and two long drawers, resembles the one delivered to Fontainebleau for Queen Maria Leczinska by BVRB in 1737. It is coated with blue and white vernis Martin, essentially representing exotic birds and plants, freely inspired by Chinese motifs. The silvered bronze decoration, typical of Criaerd, consists of trophies down the sides of the legs, and pierced sabots. The frames are formed by a series of scrolls, and the central, violin-shaped cartouche is created by a wavy border pierced with ovals, scrolls, and foliage. This type of decoration became very popular; it features on other commodes by Criaerd, notably the one in the former Grog-Carven Collection, or the one delivered by Hébert for the Dauphin’s study at the Château de Versailles in 1748.  
 
Catalogue d’exposition : « Nouvelles acquisitions du département des Objets d’art 1990-1994 », Paris, 1995,  pp. 31, 134-136. 
D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, A. Lefébure, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, t. 1, Paris, Faton, 1993, pp. 144-147
Louvre

Please return immediately to its rightful owner

Posted on Posted in Isabella Stewart Gardner, Johannes Vermeer, MuseumLeave a comment
Vermeer’s The Concert was Isabella Gardner’s first major acquisition. She bought it with the help of experts at a Paris auction sale. Gardner placed it on a table alongside the window, a location where she often placed her most prized paintings, with a chair in front of it to invite viewing.

The Gardner Museum is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the recovery of these stolen artworks in good condition. Anyone with information—about the theft, the location of these artworks, or the investigation—is encouraged to contact the Museum’s Director of Security Anthony Amore directly at 617-278-5114 or theft@gardnermuseum.org. The Museum can ensure complete confidentiality.


Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Doll’s House of Petronella Oortman

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In 1686 Petronella Oortman, a widow and wealthy in her own right, married the silk merchant Johannes Brandt (1654-1731). The couple lived on Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam. That same year, Petronella Oortman began her magnificent doll’s house. She spent the following four years collecting miniature objects and furniture for the house, spending an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 guilders, the price of a real house along one of Amsterdam’s canals at that time.
 

 
ca. 1686-1705
Seventeenth-century doll’s houses were not children’s toys, they were a hobby* for ladies, comparable to the cabinets in which gentlemen kept their collections. This is one of three seventeenth-century doll’s houses that have survived intact. It was commissioned by Petronella Oortman, a wealthy Amsterdam lady. The house is remarkable in that all of the components are made exactly to scale. Petronella ordered miniature porcelain objects from China and commissioned furniture makers and artists to decorate the interior. It was extremely costly to create a model house like this. Petronella probably spent between twenty and thirty thousand guilders on her doll’s house. In the seventeenth century she would have been able to buy a real house along one of the canals for that price. 

[Hobbies: In the 17th century, many wealthy Dutch merchants had collections of one sort or another, which they kept in display cabinets. The wives of these well-to-do gentlemen also had collections, which reflected their personal interests: their homes. Some had large cupboards full of miniature furniture and dolls, replicas of a real home. These doll’s houses were sometimes on a magnificent scale. Whenever an important visitor dropped by, the host and hostess would show their collections. The master of the house would open the drawers of his cabinet and explain the contents to his guests, while his wife gave a comprehensive demonstration of her doll’s house. She would display the contents of the cupboards, reveal hidden spaces, light the lamps and would let real water gush from the fountain in the garden. Doll’s house demonstrations sometimes went on for hours.] Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Fenway Court

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Years ago I decided that the greatest need in our Country was Art… We were a very young country and had very few opportunities of seeing beautiful things, works of art… So, I determined to make it my life’s work if I could.
“Mrs. Jack” Gardner Museum, Gardner Way West, Fenway
Leon Abdalian, 1920

La Cigale

Posted on Posted in Christian Dior, Fashion, Museum, The Kyoto Costume InstituteLeave a comment
Christian Dior ~ Day Dress “La Cigale” Automne- Hiver 1952
[photo by Takashi Hatakeyama]
This dress from the collections “Profile Line,” which have a distinctive sharp silhouette. In contrast to the slender upper body, the skirt spreads out three-dimensionally. Supported by a stiff petticoat, which has same form of the outer skirt, the skirt maintains a perfect silhouette.


Christian Dior led the golden age of Haute Couture in Paris since introducing the “New Look” in 1947. He created new silhouettes, such as the “Tulip line” and “A-line,” one after another for every season. Using a stiff interlining and bones, Dior created three-dimensional silhouettes. 
The Kyoto Costume Institute

Harper’s Bazaar (September 1952) described “La Cigale” as built in “gray moiré, so heavy it looks like a pliant metal,” while Vogue (September 1, 1952) called it “a masterpiece of construction and execution.” In 1952, what has been called the Dior slouch was placed inside a severe International Style edifice. The devices customarily used to soften surface and silhouette in Dior are eschewed, and the dress becomes the housing of the fashionable posture now required by its apparent weight: the skirt is cantilevered at the hipbone—hip forward, stomach in, shoulders down, and the back long and rounded. Dior employed shaped pattern pieces to mold the bodice to the body and likewise to allow for the dilation at the hips.

American periodicals continued to promote Parisian couture lines after World War II, but they also included American design images and the ready-to-wear lines of Paris in order to make their publications relevant to a wide economic range of American women. “La Cigale” has the underpinnings of couture, but with its standard moiré, long, fitted sleeve, and smooth bodice and skirt cut, a facade of this cocktail piece could easily be adapted for the department store. American designers like Anne Fogarty and Ceil Chapman emulated the “New Look” line for cocktail wear, but used less luxurious fabrics and trims. Dior, along with French contemporary Jacques Fath and milliners Lilly Daché and John Fredericks, quickly saw the advantages of promoting cocktail clothing in the American ready-to-wear market, designing specifically for their more inexpensive lines: Dior New York, Jacques Fath for Joseph Halpert, Dachettes, and John Fredericks Charmers.

Movieland Wax Museum

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Gloria Swanson  
Sunset Boulevard
Charlie Chaplin  
The Gold Rush
Vincent Price  
House of Wax
Jeanette MacDonald, Maurice Chevalier
Merry Widow
Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford  
The Taming of the Shrew
Greta Garbo  
Queen Christina
Laurel and Hardy  
Perfect Day
Gina Lollobrigida  
Flesh and the Woman
Norma Shearer
Marie Antoinette
Jean Harlow  
Dinner at Eight
Nancy Kwan
World of Suzy Wong


On May 4, 1962 Mary Pickford dedicated the Museum on behalf of the outstanding entertainers of the Cinema world.   
On Oct. 31, 2005, after 43 years in business and 10 million visitors, the large Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, California closed its doors for good, due to declining visitors and revenue.  About 50 of the museum’s celebrity figures were shipped to a sister museum in San Francisco, and 80 others went to a museum in South Korea. Most of the rest were put up for public auction in March 2006, which brought in over a million dollars.