• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE LESLEY AND EMMA SHEAFER COLLECTION A Selective Presentation Western European Arts Galleries Main Floor Brochure Design: Lee Stausland Printed by: Office Service, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Cover Art No. 28 CREST OF WALL MIRROR 1974.356.224 THE LESLEY AND EMMA SHEAFER COLLECTION A Selective Presentation Opening July 16,1975 Brochure by Yvonne Hackenbroch and James Parker, Curators, Western European Arts Department The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York INTRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Mr. and Mrs. Sheafer began their collecting in the The authors would like to acknowledge the assist­ late 1920's with the purchase of American contemporary ance they have received from Lucían J. Leone and paintings and drawings. To accompany these paintings Melanie Roher Schwartz in the Museum's Design De­ they bought pieces of 18th century English and French partment, as well as Clare Le Corbeiller and Jessie furniture which appear in old photographs taken of their McNab Dennis, Associate Curators, and Mrs. Thomas apartment at 45 East 66th Street, New York City. It was A. Cassilly and William H. Straus, volunteers, in the not until after the Second World War, in about 1947, that Western European Arts Department. they turned their attention to the acquisition of French Credit for photography of the Sheafer collection and German furniture and decorative arts. At this time belongs to Mr. Richard A. Taylor of the firm of Taylor & they seem to have patronized several German dealers, Dull, Inc., who took the photographs that form the illus­ and the resulting purchases largely displaced the earlier trations of this brochure. furnishings of their apartment (a good many of the American paintings and drawings were retained, and a selective showing of them is planned for the 20th Cen­ tury Art Department's galleries). Mr. and Mrs. Sheafer's small collection of European paintings and drawings, which included examples by Degas, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as a painted architectural fantasy by the 18th century Italian artist, Francesco Guardi, together with drawings by Jean-Michel Moreau Le Jeune and Jean Pillement dated in the 1770's, was also begun at this time. After Mr. Sheafer's death in 1956 Mrs. Sheafer con­ tinued to buy furniture and porcelain from dealers in Munich and New York City, to such effect that at her death in 1973 she owned not only distinguished pieces of French furniture, dating from the middle years of the eighteenth century, but also the most extraordinary examples of German rococo furniture to be found in any collection, public or private, outside of Germany. An account of Mr. and Mrs. Sheafer's German and French porcelain and faience and their German silver, acquired at the same time that they were buying furni­ ture, will be found in the appropriate section of this brochure. It has not been possible, in the space available, to show any more than a restricted selection from the bequest of paintings and decorative arts left to the Museum by Mrs. Sheafer. Her bequest comprised over one hundred and fifty pieces of furniture, almost four hundred examples of porcelain and other ceramics, as well as more than one hundred and fifty objects of Ger­ man silver and bibelots, from which a choice has been made to exhibit a resumé of the collection, a selective presentation. 197774 ^FURNITURE FRENCH FURNITURE Frontis Piece The cabinetmaker who signed this commode is known No. 11 ARMCHAIR 1974.356.192 to have worked for the French dealer (marchand- mercier) Thomas-Joachim Hébert, who commissioned COMMODE. Coromandel lacquer and ebony on oak, Criard to make several pieces of furniture for the French gilt-bronze mounts, with a brèche d'Alep marble top. crown in the 1740's. Signed BVRB (once at each corner, under the top), for "In distinguishing Chinese export lacquers of the Bernard Van Risen Burgh II, active about 1730-1765 eighteenth century from the Japanese it may be noted (see no. 7). French, 1745-1750. Height 34 inches. Width 1 that the Japanese pieces are usually of better quality 33 inches. Depth 25 /4 inches. and have a glossier surface. The design of these Jap­ Coromandel lacquer derived its name from the Coro­ anese lacquered panels is carried out in gold usually in mandel coast stretching north and south of Madras, off relief (taka-makiye). The decorative motifs take the form the eastern coastline of India. In the late 17th and 18th of precipitous mountains and rocks, with trees and centuries merchant ships would stop at ports along this water..." (Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Cen­ coast to pick up goods exported from China, such as the tury by Margaret Jourdain and R. Soame Jenyns, incised lacquer screen or cabinet, panels of which were Country Life, 1950). used to make up the surface of this commode. The sub­ Oriental lacquer of this sort usually arrived in France ject of the front panel, with its scattered groups of made up into a cabinet or screen. It was a delicate task Oriental figures, lacks the element of perspective char­ to detach the ornamental panels and apply them to acteristically missing from Oriental lacquer designs of another piece of furniture, such as this commode. An the period. The side panels represent fantastic animals, account of this process is given in a contemporary and are, like the front, set within gilt-bronze rococo treatise: l'Art du Menuisier Ebéniste, by M. Roubo, 1774. mounts of exceptional vitality and inventiveness. Accession number 1974.356.159. Accession number 1974.356.189 2. COMMODE. Black and gold Chinese lacquer and japan­ COMMODE. Red japanning on oak, gilt-bronze mounts, ning on oak, gilt-bronze mounts, with a brèche d'Alep with a Spanish brocatelle marble top. Unsigned. French, marble top. Signed DUBOIS (on the left front corner about 1760. Height 34% inches. Width 38 inches. Depth 1 under the marble top) for Jacques Dubois, active 1742- 18 /2 inches. 1763. The gilt-bronze mounts bearing the mark of the Several slightly wider red japanned commodes painted crowned C (see under no. 6). French, about 1745-1749. 1 with chinoiserie subjects were supplied in the mid- Height 34 inches. Width 41 /4 inches. Depth 22 inches. 1750's by the Paris dealer (marchand-mercier) Lazare The Sheafer collection is particularly rich in small Duvaux for his aristocratic patrons. The Chinese land­ lacquered and japanned commodes (there are four in scapes on the front of this commode, dotted with build­ this exhibition). On this example, Chinese lacquer, ings and peopled with Chinese figures, give way on the sometimes described as vernis de la Chine, has been painted sides to flowering shrubs and exotic birds. used for the front panel, while a European imitation, The commode was a type of furniture originating in called japanning, also known as vernis façon de la France in the very early years of the 18th century. Its Chine, serves for the decoration of the sides of the name derived from the greater convenience (com­ commode. The production of Oriental lacquer, built up modité) it provided for the storing of clothes, etc., as layer upon layer, was an expensive and time-consuming compared with the older chest. Accession number process, whereas japanning, a technique practiced in 1974.356.153 Europe, made use of various colored varnishes, and was a relatively cheap and easy substitute for lacquer. Accession number 1974.356.160 5. COMMODE. Scarlet, gold and black japanning on oak, gilt-bronze mounts, with a Rouge royal marble top. Signed D F (on the under side, and on the top on the left 3. COMMODE. Black and gold Japanese lacquer on oak, side, under the marble) for Jean Desforges (?) active gilt-bronze mounts with a Ranee marble top. Signed M. 1739-. French, about 1760. Height 34 inches. Width 42V2 CRIAERD (on the right front corner under the marble inches. Depth 20% inches. top) for Mathieu Criaerd or Criard, active 1738-1776. 1 French, 1750-1755. Height 32 /2 inches. Width 41 Vz The identification of the cabinetmaker Jean Desforges inches. Depth 20% inches. with the initials D F is not certain. Strongly-moulded No.1 COMMODE 1974.356.189 No. 3 COMMODE 1974.356.159 No. 7 WRITING TABLE 1974.356.186 FRENCH FURNITURE relatively thick gilt-bronze bands, such as those framing used as a ground for the stylized floral marquetry on the front and side panels of this commode, occur on both tables. other pieces of case furniture also bearing the initials D F. The two drawers lack gilt-bronze handles, and The oddly-named Bernard Van Risen Burgh belonged to would have been opened by means of a key (compare a family of cabinetmakers of Dutch extraction. Called by no. 1). Scarlet japanning with chinoiserie motifs picked Sir Francis Watson "... one of the great masters of out in gold was also used on the red "lacquer" (jap­ the fully developed Louis XV style" (see also the com­ anned) writing table made for Louis XV's study at Ver­ mode, no. 1, signed by him), Van Risen Burgh provided sailles in 1759, now in the Wrightsman Rooms at the furniture for Louis XV, for Madame de Pompadour, and Museum. Accession number 1974.356.205 for members of the French court, through the inter­ mediary of the great Parisian dealers, the marchands- merciers. Because it would have been awkward to stamp 6. COMMODE. Satiné wood on oak, parts of the carcass of a piece of furniture with his full name, he may have pine, the drawer linings of walnut, gilt-bronze mounts, adopted the signature "BVRB" to identify the products with a brèche d'Alep marble top.

Load more

  32

Copy Link