The transition style and Louis XVI

The taste for Antiquity was widely disseminated by a continuous flow of publications, entire series devoted to ancient Greece, Italy, and archaeological studies. It was inevitable that the graceful Rococo style would succumb to such an assault.

In 1770, at the time when Madame du Barry inaugurated her new Château de Louveciennes – a masterpiece of the Louis XVI style – it was obvious that the Louis XV style had gone out of fashion, at least in Paris, and this well before the death of the king who gave it its name. Obviously, the change in style only took place gradually, whether from a morphological or decorative point of view.

A period of transition, in this case a decade, was in fact necessary for the assimilation and perfection of the new principles. As always, ornament followed first while the lines and structure remained dependent on ancient taste.

When the transition from Louis XV to Louis XVI was completed, furniture had, however, entered the era of orthogonality and circular or elliptical curves, the latter supplanting the sinuous curves of rococo. A base composed of tapered and straight elements replaced the curved legs of the Louis XV. Grace and beauty lay in the perfection of proportions, the harmony of all parts and the division of surfaces into panels and their framing.

However, even under the reign of Louis XVI, some archaic pieces, belonging to the so-called Transition style, had not definitively renounced the forms of rocaille, mainly the curved legs, visible on a large number of seats, chests of drawers, small tables of all types, particularly for women's use.

In addition, the transition from the Louis XV style to the Louis XVI style is marked by the durability of the extraordinary technical qualities developed by Parisian cabinetmakers under the reign of the Bien-Aimé. In truth, little remained to be discovered in this area and we will see this by briefly studying the works of several great names in cabinetmaking of the time. In fact, the same woods were used, native or exotic; mahogany, in particular, was the object of real fervor. Thus, simple mahogany veneers were adopted to cover the frames of chests of drawers and received gilded bronze ornaments. Marble tops retained their prestige and were specially chosen according to their color. Although the furniture of the First Empire differed greatly from that characteristic of Louis XVI, both styles were based on the same principle, namely the imitation of Antiquity.

However, given that society in the 1760s and up to the Revolution was just as Epicurean as that of the first half of the 18th century, the creators of the Louis XVI style applied this principle with considerable discretion and respect for national taste. Under the reign of Louis XVI, Antiquity thus remained a fashion; Antiquity is revisited according to French requirements for comfort and convenience. Therefore, even if an untrained eye can easily tell the difference between Louis XV and Louis XVI pieces, a certain affinity exists between the two styles.

The Louis XVI style is thus characterized by refined simplicity, contained elegance and precision embellished with an abundance of graceful and delicate ornaments. Never before in the history of French furniture have cabinetmakers demonstrated such finesse in the execution of details. They were able to demonstrate a very assured taste in the choice of decorative motifs, rich enough to lighten the aridity of the orthogonal shapes, always within the limits imposed by assumed moderation. An incomparable trait of Louis XVI lies in the meticulous treatment of the ornaments by the sculptors and especially by the bronze workers.

Indeed, the quality of the bronze settings – real jewels – is more reminiscent of the work of a goldsmith than that of a foundry-engraver. Among the most common motifs, often inherited from ancient architecture, we should mention dentils, friezes of acanthus, oak or pearls, interlacing, ribbons, rosaries and lancets. Also borrowed from ancient vocabulary and integrated into furniture are pilasters, consoles and balusters. By far the most important element are the columns, either detached or more frequently engaged, with capitals, turned and fluted shafts, located at the corners of chests of drawers and other pieces of furniture. The Louis XVI style is distinguished by a host of famous cabinetmakers, from Jean-Henri Riesener to Adam Weisweiler. Several of them, such as Claude-Charles Saunier, Leleu and Riesener, began their careers during the reign of Louis XV. Riesener (1734-1806) was part of this nebula of German artisans who came to seek their fortune in Paris in the 18th century. After the accession of Louis XVI, they came in even greater numbers than before, hoping to obtain the favor of Queen Marie-Antoinette. The patronage granted to cabinetmakers like Guillaume Beneman, Weisweiler and Schwerdfeger shows that their hopes were not in vain.

Riesener, like most cabinetmakers from the Rhineland, excelled in the creation of pieces featuring complex locking systems and studied mechanisms, which were to reach their peak during the reign of Louis XVI. Martin Carlin is also a perfect representative of the charming manner of the Louis XVI style, made of refined elegance and grace. Her exquisite bronze settings are available in tiny stylized motifs, such as rows of pearls, garlands of naturalistic flowers or, typical of her art, rows of drapery motifs. A fan of small transforming furniture, he produced a number of small tables that were very popular at the time, combining the functions of a work table, a writing table and a reading table.

The Louis XVI style is also characterized by the combination of rich materials and Carlin, like many of his contemporaries, perfectly possessed the technical mastery required to work with these various materials, such as marble mosaic panels, lacquer, marquetry or even Sèvres porcelain plaques, generally painted with bouquets of flowers. Armchair by Georges Jacob for the Golden Cabinet of Marie-Antoinette, the queen's small apartment, Palace of Versailles. The stylish seats Louis XVI are generally more angular than those belonging to the previous style, and therefore less comfortable, at least in appearance. On the other hand, they exhibit more variety in form and ornament.

The major difference between a Louis Due to the architectural influence, Louis XVI seats are also characterized by elements very clearly separated from each other by visible connecting joints, while a Louis XV seat is composed of continuous curves which fit together without the slightest obstacle and without the slightest separation. The back of the Louis XVI seat is simply molded or carved with motifs derived from antique models. It can have a number of different shapes and, when it is slightly concave in plan, it is said to be convertible. The medallion-shaped or rectangular backrests are particularly characteristic of the style.

Many have square shapes. Others have straight or slightly oblique uprights with an upper crossbar in the shape of a basket handle. At the top of the legs there is generally a connecting thimble – a necessary reinforcement – located in the belt and often decorated on two sides by a rosette. Under the reign of Louis XVI, the art of seating reached a very high level of excellence. As sculptors, carpenters like Boulard, Jean-Baptiste Lelarge, Louis Delanois, Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné and others, contributed a lot to the finishing of their works. Georges Jacob (1739-1814), one of the greatest wood sculptors of the 18th century, created and executed a large number of seats. His work shows the evolution of taste from Louis XVI to the Empire. At this time, beds were almost all equipped with a canopy. The most common types are the Polish beds with a dome-shaped canopy and the duchess bed with a rectangular canopy attached to the ceiling. The backs of the beds, in most cases, reproduce the shapes of those of the seats; They are rectangular or shaped like a basket handle.

As far as tables are concerned, the period is not distinguished by great inventiveness compared to the previous one. The Athenian, however, constitutes a new type for the time. The profusion of this type, but also of cassolettes, incense burners, pedestal tables and planters, represents a considerable contribution to the Louis XVI style which will continue until the end of the Empire. The elegant secretaries and desks already known during the reign of Louis XV remain in favor. Since furniture designed to fit harmoniously into a specific decorative framework corresponds to an idea that remained dominant during the reign of Louis XVI, pieces such as chests of drawers, base of cabinets and corners were produced in large quantities. In terms of decorations, the front of Louis XVI chests of drawers is often still thought of as a unit, meaning that the division between the drawers, far from being marked, is most often hidden.

As for the pull handles, these are very frequently made up of a ring with a crown motif placed on a circular plate sometimes decorated with a rosette. Derived from the chest of drawers, a new type of furniture appears, the sideboard, which only retains the belt drawers from its model. The number of shelves forming shelves and their arrangement vary considerably from one room to another; some models have a large mirror as a background.

Like the chests of drawers of the same period, the side tables are generally veneered with mahogany and decorated with gilded bronzes. A novelty introduced by the Louis XVI style is the presence of an openwork brass gallery framing the marble top of a number of tables, joys of the day, chests of drawers with five or more drawers and display cases. As the end of the reign approaches, around 1785, the furniture begins a new evolution which tends to distance itself pure Louis XVI style. Indeed, and this is particularly true for pieces of great luxury such as consoles and chests of drawers produced for the royal apartments, a certain resemblance begins to emerge, mainly in the monumentality of the forms, with the Louis XIV style. The most important representative of this new trend is undoubtedly Guillaume Beneman.

But beyond his very original work, other cabinetmakers made exact copies of Louis XIV pieces. Thus the imitations of the sumptuous furniture of Boulle, with their marquetry of metal and tortoiseshell, produced by Montigny, Levasseur, Séverin and others. Instead of recalling the splendor of the Grand Siècle, certain pieces belonging to this period already anticipate the Directoire and Empire styles. The pedestal tables, whose shapes follow those of Pompeian tripods very closely, are clearly ahead of the rest of the furniture produced at this time. This new style is more consciously archaeological in its manifestations than the pure Louis XVI style.

However, until the Revolution, the austerity of this archaeological trend was largely tempered by the grace of feelings. The cabinetmaker whose compositions and ornaments are best representative of this Pompeian style is Adam Weisweiler, one of the most appreciated cabinetmakers of his time.