Search results for ""Author Helen Jacobsen""

This first major monograph on cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener traces his life and career, bringing new insights into his business practice, designs and construction techniques. Jean-Henri Riesener (1734–1806) was one of the greatest French cabinetmakers of all time. From humble beginnings as a German immigrant in Paris, he found fame through the delivery of a magnificent roll-top desk to Louis XV in 1769. He went on to become Marie-Antoinette’s favourite cabinetmaker, supplying the queen and the court of Louis XVI with sumptuous furniture of superb quality. Renowned for his exquisite marquetry and refined designs, his pieces were ornamented with spectacular gilt-bronze mounts made by some of the greatest metalworkers in Paris. In the nineteenth century, Riesener’s name became associated with the very best of Louis XVI-period French furniture. His pieces continue to be highly sought after and are found in major museums worldwide. Based on the extensive collections of Riesener furniture in the Wallace Collection, Waddesdon Manor and the Royal Collection, the authors examine the objects and their history, and highlight the changing tastes of the nineteenth-century collectors who acquired so many former French royal pieces. The new illustrations and visual glossary add another important resource for art historians, decorative arts enthusiasts and furniture lovers.

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Accompanying an exhibition at the Wallace Collection, Inspiring Walt Disney explores the influences of the art and architecture of France on Walt Disney and his studio artists, highlighting in particular the Disney classics of hand-drawn animation, Cinderella (1950) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). Pairing preparatory material from these films – including concept art for talking furniture and fairy-tale castles – with masterpieces from the eighteenth century reveals hidden sources of inspiration and allows us to appreciate the extraordinary talents behind Disney animated films and French decorative arts. Just as the dynamic, twisting movements of the Rococo sought to breathe life into what was essentially inanimate – silver, porcelain, furniture – so too did Disney animators seek to create the illusion of movement, action and emotion. Illustrated with innovative works by artists such as Mary Blair, Hans Bacher and Peter J. Hall, and the animated and anthropomorphic furniture, Sèvres porcelain and gilt bronze of rococo designers, the catalogue explores the shared creative roots of these two seemingly disparate artistic realms and looks to revitalise the feelings of excitement, awe and marvel, which both eighteenth-century craftsmen and Disney animators sought to spark in their audiences.

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"Pierre Gouthiere: Virtuoso Gilder at the French Court" celebrates the life of Pierre Gouthiere (1732-1813), considered to be one of the best Parisian bronze chasers and gilders of the eighteenth-century. Gouthiere became gilder to Louis XV in 1767, and is credited with inventing a new type of gilding that left a matte finish"dorure au mat"one of the hallmarks of his work. Although incredibly successful in his day, Gouthiere died in relative obscurity and poverty; unlike some of his contemporaries his works never regained popularity after the French Revolution.The inclusion of detailed entries and plates of forty works positively attributed to Gouthiere, five essays by leading experts which examine Gouthiere's life, career, clientele, and gilding techniques, as well as examples of his work from French, British and American collections, ensure that this beautiful volume is an invaluable new resource on Gouthiere. The only other volume on this master was published in 1920, and is now long out of print.

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