Commissioned by Louis XVI, this ensemble belongs to a set of four wall hangings (1978.404.1–.4) and fifty-six pieces of furniture upholstery (1978.404.5a–c–.18a–c) depicting the four continents: America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Tapestry-woven upholstery for two settees and twelve armchairs was commissioned at the same time as the wall hangings depicting the Four Continents (1978.404.1–.4).¹ The Four Continents was one of two suites・each including four wall tapestries and coordinating seating furniture・that were ordered from Beauvais in 1786; the subject of the other suite was to be a series illustrating the arts, sciences, agriculture, and commerce. An earlier suite of tapestry furniture covers depicting the continents was produced at the Royal Manufactory of Gobelins in 1748, and the arrangement of the motifs in Le Barbier’s covers is similar: personifications of the continents are set against a landscape on the seat backs, and native animals populate the seat covers.² This subject in tapestry aligns with the contemporary popularity of the Four Continents in eighteenth-century European art: everything from porcelain table decorations and tablewares to dinner napkins and ceiling frescoes incorporated personifications of the continents (see MMA 64.101.1347, 1348). The settee showing America and Europe emphasizes the close relationship between France and the new United States, which France promoted so forcefully in the tapestry depicting America. The figure of France occupies the center of the sofa back, and America is seated off to the left. In this composition, France is ‘introducing the new nation to Europe across Neptune’s domain, the Atlantic; France’s discarded armor lies at her feet, as the war has been won, and Victory crowns her.’³ The armchairs repeat the female personifications of each continent, attended by male figures and some of the fauna typically associated with each. There are three variations on each of the four continents, and, although they are all slightly different, the iconographic program is consistent. It appears that this upholstery was not affixed to furniture frames until sometime after 1852, decades after its production.⁴ Usually, a client commissioned or purchased high-quality tapestry upholstery before furniture frames were made to accommodate the weavings. This type of upholstery was quite popular in the late eighteenth century, and the Beauvais manufactory made many such sets.⁵ However, the combination of matching wall hangings and seating furniture was more unusual, and clearly more expensive. A suite of furnishings would have been reserved for a formal room, such as a salon or drawing room. [Melinda Watt, adapted from Interwoven Globe, The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500-1800/ edited by Amelia Peck; New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: distributed by Yale University Press, 2013]1. See Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries, vol. 2, pp. 572–73. 2. Ibid., p. 573; the Gobelins tapestry upholstery depicted the continents as merchants on the sofa backs. Some of Le Barbier’s designs for the upholstery survive; none of the cartoons for the wall tapestries exist today. See ibid., pp. 572, 588–603, figs. 67–74, all in the Mobilier National, Paris. 3. Ibid., p. 591. 4. Ibid., p. 573, from the sale listing of May 18, 1852, hotel of the duc de Richlieu; no furniture frames were mentioned, nor was the ownership indicated. 5. Kisluk-Grosheide, ‘Peregrinations of a Lit à la Duchesse en Impériale by George Jacob,’ p. 144, and personal communication.

This tapestry panel is part of a set of twelve armchairs and two settees ordered in Paris in 1753 by Baron Johann Ernst Bernstorff, Danish ambassador to the court of Versailles between 1744 and 1751. After returning to Denmark, Bernstorff commissioned this seat furniture for the tapestry room of his new residence in Copenhagen that was hung with four wall tapestries of the Amours des Dieux series woven at the Beauvais Manufactory. The tapestry covers are woven with animal and bird subjects after designs by the painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686–1755). For a fuller description of the entire set, see, e.g., MMA 35.145.1.

Cette tapisserie rectangulaire est cousue avec son pendant représentant un jardinier dans un treillage (voir inv. J 994 - n° d'objet COGJ994), formant ainsi un panneau d'entre-fenêtres. Ce groupe appartient à une série de tapisseries créées par François Boucher pour la Manufacture de Beauvais alors dirigée par Jean-Baptiste Oudry. Ce dernier commande au jeune peintre issu de l'Académie, tout juste de retour d'Italie, une série de cartons illustrant les "Fêtes italiennes". Composée initialement de trois tentures, cette série s'est agrandie au fur et à mesure des années avec de nouvelles commandes. Les deux lés cousus conservés au musée Cognacq-Jay reprennent la composition d'un jardinier et d'une jeune femme appuyés sur un treillage et écoutant un concert, schéma créé pour le neuvième tableau parmi les quatorze constitués pour les "Fêtes italiennes" : "La Musique".

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.

Presenting musicians, acrobats, and exotic animals within a fanciful architectural setting, this tapestry is from a set known as the Berain Grotesques, in reference to the pervasive stylistic influence of Jean Berain (1640–1711), who may even have provided preliminary sketches. The lighthearted subject matter and whimsical design contrast with the heavier, ornate style that had characterized French tapestry during the third quarter of the seventeenth century. The series enjoyed immense popularity during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and the Beauvais workshop produced many weavings for French clients.

Ce dossier de fauteuil est orné d'un grand bouquet de fleurs.

These tapestry panels are part of a set of twelve armchairs and two settees ordered in Paris in 1753 by Baron Johann Ernst Bernstorff, Danish ambassador to the court of Versailles between 1744 and 1751. After returning to Denmark, Bernstorff commissioned this seat furniture for the tapestry room of his new residence in Copenhagen that was hung with four wall tapestries of the Amours des Dieux series woven at the Beauvais Manufactory. The tapestry covers are woven with animal and bird subjects after designs by the painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686–1755). For a fuller description of the entire set, see, e.g., MMA 35.145.1.

Cette tapisserie est ornée d'une draperie simulée, avec macarons, franges, cordelières et glands, et est décorée de roses, marguerites et feuilles de chêne.

Sur cette tapisserie décorative figure un décor de semis de grands bouquets entre des cadres moulurés simulés autour desquel s'enroulent des guirlandes de roses.

This was originally a chair-back on the type of tapestry-upholstered furniture popular since the eighteenth century.  Except for the putto’s body, rendered in wool, most of the panel is woven with fine silks.  The exquisite workmanship and wide-ranging palette are typical of tapestries associated with Beauvais.

1851~ / 1900~, Beauvais

1851~ / 1900~, Beauvais

Description