null
Atena Gallery
Skip to main content

Online Art Gallery - Antiques & Works of Art

Atena and her collection of Romantic-era art

Atena and her collection of Romantic-era art

10.09.19

"Romantic Paris, 1815-1848": the major exhibition at the Petit Palais

From May 22 to September 15, 2019, the Petit Palais presents "Romantic Paris ," an immersive exhibition that plunges us into the cultural and artistic atmosphere of the Romantic era. We discover the interiors of the Tuileries Palace adorned with blond wood furniture, the galleries of the Palais-Royal with their luxury objects, clocks, opaline glass, and small bronzes, the walls of the Salon with its "troubadour" paintings and genre scenes, and we marvel at the enthusiasm of an entire generation for the Middle Ages and the Gothic style.

 

Atena Gallery and its collection of Romantic-era art

Following the exhibition at the Petit Palais, Galerie Atena highlights its own Romantic period pieces, a rich collection of bronzes , clocks , boxes , lighting , collectibles and glass objects that testify to the artistic effervescence and the finesse of the craftsmanship of the Romantic years.

 

The clocks

Clocks were a true fashion phenomenon, developing from the end of the 18th century. Every important figure in society was expected to have a clock on their mantelpiece. Furthermore, "elegance and fashion dictated that the clock in the drawing room should not resemble the one in the boudoir, and that the one in the dining room should be quite different from the one in the bedroom. That's not all; in the house of a prelate, the clocks should not be like those seen in the house of a general; each social class should have its own characteristic ornamentation. A commoner would not have a clock adorned with sabers and cannons on her mantelpiece. A serious magistrate would not want Venus or Cupid on his" ( Journal de Paris , May 4, 1810).

Orders were numerous and styles varied, ranging from Gothic to Renaissance and Rococo . Clock makers sought to attract their clientele by using subjects from paintings popular at the Salons or popular characters from novels such as Esmeralda from Notre-Dame de Paris, published in 1831 by Victor Hugo.

Esmeralda Clock "The Tambourine Dancer"

Neo-Gothic clock

At the last exhibition of Restoration-era industrial products in 1827, the Neo-Gothic style reigned supreme. Clocks and mantel clocks were prime examples of this style. They were transformed into miniature Gothic cathedrals, adorned with arcades, pointed arches, pinnacles, and flying buttresses. The dial itself took the form of a rose window. This model, known as the "cathedral clock," is highly representative of the historicism that dominated the 1820s and 1830s. But the Gothic style also influenced a wide range of everyday objects in patinated and gilded bronze.

Clock cases come in a wide variety of materials. Many are made of patinated, gilded, or silvered bronze, but crystal, porcelain, and Boulle marquetry are also used. Cut crystal mantel clocks, column clocks, and portico clocks are highly sought after.

 

Porcelain and decorative objects

Clocks were displayed alongside numerous other furnishings related to lighting, tableware, and personal grooming in royal apartments and bourgeois homes. Candlesticks and sumptuous bronze candelabras adorned with floral wreaths, acanthus leaves, and Cupids holding candles graced tables and mantelpieces.

Candlesticks for Catering

Pair of Restoration period vases

Centerpieces, bowls, vases of all sizes, inkwells , neo-Gothic weekly planners, incense burners , and mirrors are adorned with exquisitely chiseled decorative motifs. The finesse of execution and the elegance of form that characterize these objects confirm the virtuosity of the artisans during the Restoration period.

Statuettes and small porcelain objects from Paris were very fashionable and ubiquitous in the shop windows of the Palais-Royal. Their Rococo shapes, gilding, shimmering colors, and embossed ornamentation perfectly reflected the contemporary taste for Louis XV style. Created by the Parisian porcelain maker Jacob Petit , this style of porcelain, with its Rococo lines, scalloped shapes, and vibrant colors, developed in Paris during the 1830s.

 

Opaline glass and small glass objects

Called "opal crystals" since the Napoleonic era, and later "opaline," this term refers to several types of colored glass produced in France during the 19th century. The oldest opal crystals are lead glass mixed with colorants. Old opacification recipes adapted for lead glass produce an opalescent material, known as "soap bubble" or "soapy opaline .

Opaline glass service known as "Water Glass", Charles X

Opaline vases

Opaline vases with neo-Gothic decoration, Desvignes

The "opal colors" are the other shades that result from the addition of metallic oxides to this basic opal composition. These glasses, in shades of pink called "hydrangea" and later "pigeon's throat ," obtained with gold salts, or blue "turquoise" thanks to cobalt or copper oxides, are often mounted in gilt bronze. The beautiful, finely chased mounts, adorned with palmettes, interlacing patterns, or Gothic-inspired motifs, house caskets, bottles, cups, and delicate little bowls. Their proportions are well-balanced and their lines, pure.

 

Opaline glass vases

Pair of Medici opaline vases with Desvignes decoration

Even rarer are the painted and gilded decorations fixed to opal crystal at low temperatures, created by Jean-Baptiste Desvignes or his workshop. The tones, always matte, are few: dark blue and red, with gilding predominating. On some pieces, Desvignes created small illustrative scenes from La Fontaine's fables, in delicate shades of blue, ochre, and green.

 

The vogue for bronze statuettes

Thanks to new mechanical reduction processes, the production of bronze statuettes experienced an incredible revival under the July Monarchy. Small bronzes reproducing antique statuettes, Renaissance works, or animal subjects were perfectly suited to the decoration of bourgeois interiors. Some models were even intended to adorn everyday objects: clocks, inkwells, and paperweights.

 

Suzanne by Eugène Antoine Aizelin Suzanne by Eugène Antoine Aizelin

The Palais-Royal and the luxury trade

 

Since the reign of Louis XIV, the Palais-Royal shopping district has been a rich and fascinating part of Parisian life. Located in a palace and gardens north of the Louvre, it originally belonged to Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642). Under Louis-Philippe d'Orléans (1747-1793), Duke of Chartres and later known as "Philippe Égalité" during the Revolution, the palace was renovated and opened to the public as one of the first "shopping centers" in Europe.

 

Royal Palace
Drawing of the inner courtyard of the Palais Royal, 1791 © Paris Musée 

Famous for its high-end goods and wide variety of products, it was one of the most important markets in Europe. In addition to boasting a thriving theater and numerous restaurants, the old palace housed many cafes, gambling halls, boutiques, barbershops, bookstores, and museums. For royalty, courtiers, and wealthy foreign travelers, the Palais-Royal was the epitome of luxury.

 

The heyday of the Palais-Royal (1780-1830)

From 1780 to 1830, the Palais Royal enjoyed its golden age. Indeed, it housed all that the capital had to offer in terms of luxury and entertainment. Fashion merchants, print and engraving shops, wigmakers, booksellers, and other traders shared the dozens of shops, while the arcades welcomed a crowd of prostitutes, gamblers, and strollers drawn to the covered passages by the pleasure of shopping .

 

The shops

For commerce, the success of the Palais-Royal stemmed from the abundance and variety of goods offered. There were shops selling jewelry, watches , small bronzes , porcelain and glassware , but also print sellers, tailors, reading rooms, a bathhouse… Fashion merchants were mainly located in the Galerie de Bois, built in 1786 and composed of two galleries lined with four rows of shops, making it the ancestor of covered passages.

Crystal box

Charles X crystal box

The objects sold in the Palais-Royal galleries are luxury goods , made of precious materials such as mother-of-pearl, vermeil, tortoiseshell, gold, or crystal, and very delicately crafted. The art of box making, or "tableterie," is well represented in the Palais-Royal shop windows. Besides ladies' vanity cases, toiletry sets, and travel sets, one can admire small jewelry boxes, wallets, game boxes, hand mirrors, ring holders, dance cards, perfume burners, and other decorative objects.

 

Mother-of-pearl and vermeil coin purse

Mother-of-pearl, vermeil and turquoise coin purse

 

All his objects demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship, appreciated by wealthy French and foreign collectors visiting Paris. Some of them bear a small enameled gold pansy, an emblem of the luxury goods sold in the shops of the Palais-Royal.

 

The end of the Roaring Twenties at the Palais-Royal

In 1830, King Louis-Philippe outlawed the soliciting of clients by the hundreds of prostitutes who bustled about under the arcades of the Palais-Royal, and in 1836, the gambling dens were also closed. Theaters and shows then moved to the Grands Boulevards, thus ending the Palais-Royal's golden age.

 

Bibliography

CONTACT

MAGAZINE

VIDEOS

NOTICE

!