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| photo St Tyl |
This is the Salon de Fleurs in the Château of Compiègne, formerly a royal and imperial residence. I wandered these rooms over the week-end when I went to see the exhibit Folie Textile, a wonderful show that explores the exuberant production and use of textiles at the time of Napoleon III, 1848-1871. That exhibit and some important restoration work in historic sites is making the 19th century weigh heavily in decorative world's time line these days, provoking a certain rediscovery of decorative arts of the mid to late part of the century. More on that soon, but for today...
The Salon des Fleurs was a game room for Empress Josephine - specialty tables are scattered for playing trictrac, quadrille, bouillotte.
(Trictrac is backgammon. Does anyone know the names of these other games in English?)
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| source: Napoleon III |
An important thing to remember is that in the 19th century very often fabrics were used that were woven for a prior reign (new olds) and older decors were sometimes kept by the various regimes that succeeded each other - Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, Charles X, Louis-Philippe, Napoleon III. The reasons: availability, economy, emulation.
During the Second Empire of Napoleon III, the salon was used as a bed chamber for the Imperial Prince The young prince scratched the date 4 décembre 1868 into the marble table
and
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| Bourdelin, (c) RMN |
played his games in another well-dressed room.
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| photo St Tyl |
The Salon des Fleurs takes its name from its decoration. The oil panels painted in 1809 and 1814
by Dubois were based on the work of Pierre-Joseph Redouté.
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| photo St Tyl |
The armchairs and settees by Jacob-Desmalter are covered in Gobelins tapestry.The 18th century floral design by Louis Tessier of was chosen by the Empress Josephine and delivered in 1809 - once again,
an example of the blending of stylistic frontiers.
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| photo St Tyl |
detail of the canapé
The ground of the tapestry is a fair lilac shade with a band
of crisp, violet grosgrain to give the finishing touch.
These tones will deepen in textile design as the century progresses even to deep purple and become very popular with the advent of color-fast aniline dyes.
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| photo St Tyl |
A tender, watercolor quality still comes through in this 1st Empire /early 18th century tapestry.
The new aniline dyes must have been very exciting and, possibly, disconcerting colors - stark, staring-mad mauve, never a color I appreciated. And, you're right, there is a water-color quality to these old textiles with their now softened natural colors. Tender is the word that comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteAn extremely pretty posting; I'd hate to see the lilac "deepened" by that progress. Ultimately of course it is impossible to forget 20th Century events in this place.
ReplyDeletegorgeous gorgeous. i think i must be a nineteenth century kind of person.
ReplyDeletethanks for a delicious lead-in to a summer weekend!
Dear Blue and Carter Nicholas, The colors to come in the latter part of the 19th century did become harsh at times. It's interesting to think that the color harmonies favored by a period and a style were fashioned in part by what it was technically possible to achieve.
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