Tentacular Révélations

An addendum to yesterday's post on the fine craft fair Révélations. 

These were reaching out to me.

LOUIS XXI, PORCELAINE HUMAINE  

ANDREA BRANZI

photo© ILLÉS SARKANTYU

XAVIER LE NORMAND 

photo © MIKI NAKAMURA

ANÉMONE DE MER DANS SA BOÎTE EN PLEXIGLAS 

MIKI NAKAMURA

photo© YVES INCHIERMAN

ROLAND MELLAN 

Révélations

Byzantine textiles for today at St Tyl: The cope of St Mexme and a case of leaping leopards

Sitting in with Voltaire and Rousseau...

photo: Le style et la matière

Although I have not been able to sit down to write of late, readers here may remember my slightly animist tendancies in decorative arts (previous posts here, here, here, here if really you are interested!) that I labelled 'anthropomorphism.' I'm still drawn to this aspect of the objects we surround ourselves with and I get regular signals that I'm not alone in my whimsy.

photo: Le style et la matière

Witness this recent advertisement in the Metro for a meeting-dating site... 

where pink can meet blue and surely other color combos too.

bookcover illustration by

It may strictly be a question of limbs: 

the chair probably ranks number one on the list of human surrogates in the object world.

Faudesteuil Dagobert source: Grammaire des arts décoratifs

Le bon roi Dagobert

Avait un vieux fauteuil de fer...

The old days were not times for postural laisser-aller and sitting itself was not a priority. Even a king did not expect padded comfort for his regal posterior. The message of the throne bespoke personal power and these seats, even in more ancient and rudimentary forms, were some of the first important examples of surrogacy. The Trone de Dagobert the oldest example of a  faudesteuil, an armchair  based on the Roman curule or folding X seat. The armrests and backrest here are later in date, presumably Merovingian additions to the base. It was blocked into a stable seat in the 12th century. 'Faudesteuil' derives fromFaldestoel the German word for folding stool.From here it is easy to see the transformation to the modern French for armchair, fauteuil. (to follow up on this throne with photos and more information see here.)  

source: Grammaire des arts décoratifs

Charles Blanc, celebrated 19th century author of many works including the 

Grammaire des decorative arts and editor-in-chief of La gazette des beaux arts, 

wrote of the intricacies of seating furniture from the ployant (folding stool) and simple tabouret (stool) to the grandeur of the Louis XIV fauteuil and so on to the comfort of the Louis revivals of the late 19th century. Historic and aesthetic considerations aside, Blanc's writings show his consciouness of the  societal elements represented by furniture and how dress and decorum influenced design. The caption for the illustration above reads, "who among us would dare to propose an ogival seat to a contemporary of Mme de Pompadour?"

Mais, jamais de la vie!

source: regard'antiquaire

La comfortable and elegant bergère appeared on the scene to accomodate intimate gatherings and new ways of living.

With their constantly clever expressions and affected manners, les Precieuses of the 17th century were right to call armchairs 'vehicules de conversation' and say about them:

Voici une bérgère qui vous tend les bras.

Here is a bergère who stretches out its arms to you.

But, do be careful into whose arms you fall. Choose wisely and especially, be ever on your guard never to become a slouch in this important relationship. 

source: destockmeubles

The comfortable armchair known as the Voltaire was a creation of the Louis-Philippe period (1830-48) and was not contemporary with Voltaire. 

Voltaire by Houdon

The philosopher did however appreciate similar comfort in seating.

Blanc writes:

La vieillesse de Voltaire nous a valu un fauteuil cher à tous ceux qui conservent l'activité de l'intelligence dans l'affaiblissement du corps, et il est assez curieux, ce me semble, qu'un homme uniquement occupé des choses de l'esprit en ait remontré aux ébénistes en inventant le plus confortable des sièges.

From Voltaire’s advanced years we have gained the benefit of an armchair valued by all those who preserve their wits despite bodily weakening, yet it seems to me rather curious that a man solely devoted to matters of the mind should have guided cabinet-makers on the road to inventing the most comfortable of chairs. 

source galerie francois belliard

The table à la Tronchin could be inclined and adjusted up and down

Mais n'est-ce pas encore aux indications de Voltaire que nous devons la table Tronchin, imaginée par le célèbre médecin de Genève, afin que un homme de lettres y put écrire debout? Rien de mieux trouvé pour la santé de tous et pour l'esprit de quelques-uns, que cette table dont le pupitre, pouvant s'élever ou s'abaisser au gré de l'écrivain, lui permet de donner du mouvement à ces

idées, de les promener, pour ainsi dire, dans son cabinet, comme faisait Rousseau quand il déclamait par les chemins de son éloquence, et de revenir ensuite à sa table pour y écrire sa phrase tout d'une haleine, sans changer d'altitude, sans avoir à s'installer de nouveau.

And once again, was it not Voltaire’s indications that gave rise to the Tronchin table, imagined by the famous doctor of Geneva so the man of letters could write while standing? Nothing better has been found for the health of all and the mind of a certain number, than this table whose writing desk  is able to be raised or lowered at the writer’s will, permitting him to give movement to his ideas, to walk them about in his study so to speak,  just as Rousseau* did when he declaimed  eloquently from footpaths, then coming back  to his desk afterwards to write his sentence all in the same breath, without changing altitudes, without having to settle down again.

These days, and in such illustrous company, I'd be tempted to let our chair surrogates sit-in for us 

more and actually be sat in less. And now, that is just about as much sitting as... I can stand.

Is there a table à la Tronchin suitable for computers?

*Rousseau suffered from rhumatism and was known to be a great walker, 

the only way he found to calm his pain.

Aesthetically led

photo Le style et la matière

Silly? I bought a footstool because of the slip of velvet on it was in harmony with my mood after seeing Beauté, Morale, et Volupté dans l'Angleterre d'Oscar Wilde at the Musée d'Orsay or as the exhibit originating at the V & A is known in English, The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900. The exhibit will soon head to San Francisco. 

The Aesthetic Movement called for 'art for art's sake' and was a revolt against moralizing views and the industrial age where machines made it possible to turn out furnishings faster than it was possible to design them (well). The aim of the House Beautiful was to be personal; it's furnishings artistic -that is, it should break away from heavy Victorian eclecticism. But as with any historic movement, the impetus for change came from several directions. Without going into all the tenants of the movement and its sometimes fuzzy relation to the Pre-Raphaelites or to Arts and Crafts,  the fact that Japan opened to western commerce in 1862 after a self-imposed trade freeze of 250 years strongly influenced the design sense of the day. 

And my velvet footstool, printed with cranes and foliage, is part of the trend tinted with Asian refinement which swept through France as well as England at the time.

photo Le style et la matière

This vase was another pleasing trouvaille that same day and a continued proof of purchase under the Aesthetic spell.

photo Le style et la matière

I would love to be able to trace this. 

photo Le style et la matière

 Now I suppose I need to surround the fireplace with tiles and put shelving over the mantelpiece where I could display it

Walter Crane  My Lady’s Chamber frontispiece of The House Beautiful by Clarence Cook 

and maybe some blue and white china.

photo Oscar Wilde: Quest Machine

It is an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city possess all the attractions of the next world.

O. Wilde

Admittedly, this style could tend more toward an artistic spirit than toward consistent quality of fabrication as did the of Arts and Crafts  ideal. The poseur of design movements, achieving the 'look' was sometimes enough for the Aesthetic philosophy.

photo Le style et la matière

Moving along with the general idea of Aesthetic interiors of the end of the 19th century, though not a quality piece, I also spotted this idiosyncratic character (well, I see what it is, but robbed of its cushions there's a certain gauche charm) and for a mere 35 euros, I thought of putting it in the country house. For Whistler and Godwin the fully orchestrated interior concepts!  Otherwise, a mingling of this and that - antiques, painted sideboards and Japanese decorations - is entirely acceptable! And I've already justified fudging in the paragraph above.

photo Le style et la matière

Not always, but most often, I am the one who leads our own personal aesthetic movements in the household, but this particular chair did not inspire Monsieur. Submission can be necessary for the 

harmonious house beautiful. 

He was probably right, but I still like something about that awkward armchair.

Thanksgivings past

When I was little there was a Charlie Brown special for every occasion and I was even allowed to watch them on school nights. I wonder if children still watch the little block head in the US.

Do you remember Happy Thanksgiving Charlie Brown? In it the great chef and organizer, Snoopy, prepares the dinner table for Peppermint Patti, Marci and Franklin who have invited themselves over for the day's feast. Before they partake in a less than traditional meal of popcorn, toast and jellybeans, 

there's a great scene where the resourceful beagle must wrestle with a chair 

when setting up a table for the feast in the garden.

The chair man lurks again.

It's time to get out our DVD. 

Can you get to old for Snoopy and Charlie Brown?

Happy Thanksgiving, America!

Chairmen

Vincent Van Gogh Fauteuil de Gauguin Amsterdam

When I was at the Musée Estrine in St Rémy de Provence, one of my favorite themes and hobbyhorse of late, came trotting back with the presentation of these two familiar subjects painted by Vincent van Gogh. The chairs were described as a diptych calling to mind and symbolizing the people who used them and so demonstrate quite nicely the overflow of the animate to the inanimate that we feel at times.

Vincent's own chair,  British Museum London

Vincent van Gogh, you may know, spent several years in St Rémy, some of them 1889-90 in the sanitarium of  St Paul de Mausole. The museum, which calls itself a 'center of interpretation' for the works of Van Gogh, explains that the artist must have been aware of the popular metaphor which has it that an empty chair symbolizes its owner.

The Empty Chair by Sir Samuel Fildes

It's not surprising that Vincent would have used the chairs in this way to represent himself and his friend Gauguin. Searching further, I  found  it interesting that Van Gogh was in posession of a copy of this Fildes' engraving which represents Charles Dickens. Fildes was busy working on illustrations for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, when Dickens died suddenly. Struck by aura of his study when visiting  the author's bereft family, he recorded it as a watercolor, often reproduced through engraving as here.

 

A stand-in.

sources: L'Ocre Bleu,Victorian Web

My Anthropomorphic Loves

Matisse

The Inhabited Silence of Houses

Every once and again when I'm alone at home and all is quiet, I slip off into a sort of 

pulsating atmosphere, where the Things around me beg for attention in a different way.

It's a bit like Disney's Beauty and the Beast,

without the singing and dancing and without the shiny faces.

The furniture seems to motion to me with its extreme stillness. It moans and whispers. Floors creak, armoires adjust themselves with little pops, a drawer opens with a baritone grate. There's a humming in the air.

 My cleaning lady tells me that she says "Bonjour, Maison!" when no one is in. So maybe I'm not alone in feeling a presence --- or maybe crackpots have a way of  finding one another. (A different cleaning lady identified more with another fairy tale. She saw herself as Snow White,  a beneficent presence who worked her magic by cleaning and putting everything right in the house. A lovely image. Unfortunately, her zeal was such that she scrubbed the paint right off the doors with very abrasive lessive St. Marc.)

Don't get me wrong, I don't talk to my furniture, I listen to it.  I do think we can communue with it in  moments of silence for our mutual benefit.

Gaudi

Calvet chair

Furnishings don't have to have a particular shape to make their presence felt at quiet moments, but some do exaggerate the point with their design, vying for attention among the more common lot.

How would you feel about sharing your home with this chair? You couldn't be lonely. You can tell me that you don't like Gaudi, but really, how could you dislike this little guy? Why, he's just stretching out his arms for affection!

Gaudi said, "Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator."  Could that be the secret?

 

There are furnishings that incorporate the gimmicks of human form as with this Ultra-meuble by Kurt Seligmann or the chair in this Castaing bathroom.

I don't think they have as much personality as pieces whose animate quality is more abstract -- though they are a kick !

*

Then some furniture is scary at night. My son was afraid of an enormous Ile-de-France armoire that loomed in his bedroom when he was a toddler. It may not have helped that we referred to it as le monstre because of its size, but I don't think we used that term in front of him. I used to have moments of fright when alone in the house for an hour or two as a child. I was sure the antiques my parents collected released their spirits when my parents closed the door.

R.W. Symonds and R. Luytens

It may just be me, but some furniture has more expressiveness than others suggesting a face, a pose, a movement. Does anyone else see a be-whiskered face here? I'm sure this chest of drawers contains many unspoken secrets. These smooth rectilinear surfaces prove that a living quality doesn't have to come out of organically inspired forms...

plaster lamp

Giacometti for Jean Michel Frank

but it often does.

Writhing forms and idiosyncrasies  aside, any furniture can speak to us. The most important thing is probably the vibration of one thing set off by another.

And quiet.

Shhhhh...

fare-thee-well - objets en fer

Can one object be more an object than another? These articles made of iron - wrought, cast, sculpted - seem to be the very essence of objects. Everything in the Musée LeSecq des Tournelles of Rouen is a useful and often, a usual item. It may be the heavy process of taming iron, the bending, stretching, heating, hammering it into shape that gives it such fighting spirit. From heavy forged grills to dainty lacy pierced screens, they seem to say, "I was made by the sweat of the brow and now I stand alone." Objects par excellence.

L'arbre sec or the dry tree is a symbol for a cloth merchant and gave its name to a very old street in Paris. This wrought iron tree hung there until c. 1660. The street is located just next to the Samaritaine and I used to go there often to see a friend so I was particularly interested to discover the meaning of the name and its textile link. It seems that cloth merchants referred to Oriental legend for their symbol, since the most beautiful fabrics came from the East. The legend speaks of a tree visited by pilgrims to the valley of Josephat in the Holy Land. It was thought to have existed since the beginning of the world and to have grown on Lot's burial place; by the time of the death of Christ, the tree was dry.


At the sign of the cloth seller. Here the merchant holds the emblems of his profession measuring stick and scissors.

"How do you do?"

One of my favorite items in the museum is this candlestick that seems to be tipping a brass hat. It is really a bougeoir avec éteignoir automatique/ candlestick with automatic snuffer - an important item for those who liked to read in bed. When the candle burned low, the brass snuffer would fold over the flame, extinguishing it and preventing the start of a fire even if the reader had nodded off over his book. These items continued to be perfected until the beginning of the 19Th century.

Light fixture from 1930 which recalls the ancestral tradition of nailing the night creature to barn doors to ward off bad luck.

Dentist's pliers in the form of a bird head. The fun way to have a tooth pulled.

This robust 15-16th century door knocker seems to taunt us to have survived so many a man.
Its arms serve to balance its weight.

English lock from an Oriental cabinet.

Master project for locksmith. Note sun and moon emblems.

German orthopedic corsets, artificial arm, defensive collars (?).

Strength in numbers.


Door knocker with lion and salamander.



A magic lantern, ancestor of the projector.

Strong boxes and coffers.

Canes

Miniature furniture
The museum sponsored contemporary artists to create new "fencing" to surround the museum garden. Each panel represents a part of the collection. Here Epées by Ferdinando Nava, Carole Nava (St Cler-sur-Epte), Michel Mouton (Brussels), Florence (Arras), Ludovic Boyer (Paris).

The collection was started by pioneering photographer, Henri Secq (1818-1882) and continued by his son. It is housed in the former church St Laurent built in the late 15th century and renovated in 1911 for the millennium of the city of Rouen.

For further views and close ups, visit the site Musée Le Secq des Tournelles.