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Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
VOL. 44, NO. 22 FRIDAY MAY 31, 2013
Salvaging The Past:
Georges Hoentschel And French Decorative Arts New Exhibition at Bard Graduate Center to Showcase Materials From The Metropolitan Museum of Art Until August great patrons and collectors of the Metropolitan’s Arms and Armor age and president of the museum at collection, and some Hoentschel the time. Morgan was so impressed masterpieces may be seen today in galleries scattered with the Hoentschel collecthroughout the musetion that he had purum. But the lion’s chased it, en bloc, in share of the panthe spring of 1906. eling, fragHe gave the 18thments of century material woodwork, outright to the and giltmuseum and bronze mounts Furniture mount have not (Gorgon or Medusa mask). been on pubFrench, 1785–90. lic view since Gilt bronze. The the 1950s, Metropolitan Museum when the fashof Art, Gift of J. Pierpont ion for presenting Morgan, 1906. decorative arts in period room settings overtook the iniloaned the medieval works tial encyclopedic displays that indefinitely. It was no surprise that the were promiHoentschel collection was thought nent in the first significant enough to call for the decades of the establishment of a new museum 20th century. department. It provided the The Exhibition Featuring over Metropolitan with an important objects collection of French decorative 200 arts—unique in the United States at drawn primarily the the time. More than a department from Metropolitan was needed, however. To display more than 3,000 M u s e u m ’ s objects, including a dazzling array holdings, of wooden paneling, gilt-bronze with loans mounts, console tables, chairs, from other tapestries, sculptures, and public and private paintings, the museum collections in the commissioned the lead- United States and ing architectural frm of France, the exhibiG e o r g e s the day, McKim, Mead tion at the BGC Hoentschel & White, to design a tells the story of (1855–1915). completely new wing. this unique collecB o t t l e . The Wing of tion in four secFrench, ca. Decorative Arts opened tions. The first 1900. Glazed in 1910 with the i n t r o d u c e s stoneware. Hoentschel collection dis- G e o r g e s Collection of Dr. Martin Eidelberg, played in a systematic and Hoentschel, who New York. integrated manner aimed at was an enterpristhe education of students, artisans, ing and successful and designers, as Jean Barbet. Angel. the Metropolitan Museum; well as the French (Lyon), 1475. Deborah L. Krohn, BGC associgeneral pub- Copper alloy. The ate professor; and Ulrich Leben, lic. That Frick BGC special exhibitions curaCollection, wing is now New York, Purchase, tor and visiting professor, are home to the 1943. the organizers. The exhibition will be on view until decorator during Sunday, August 11, 2013. the late 19th and early Background 20th centuries, when France witIn June 1907, the nessed a great scientifc, industrial, monthly Bulletin of the and social transformation and the Metropolitan Museum of Art newly moneyed bourgeoisie adoptfeatured what amounted to a ed a lifestyle based on an aristonews article as its cover story. cratic model. As director of the It announced the arrival of a Parisian decorating frm Maison vast and important collecLeys, Hoentschel catered to tion of medieval art and these affuent clients, creating French 18th-century for them interiors in historic woodwork, furniture, French styles. In this section of decorative paintings, and the exhibition, ephemera, famigilt-bronze mounts that ly papers, photographs, personwas to form a “Department of al possessions, and a film Decorative Arts.” The collection presentation will outline his had recently arrived in 364 story within the context of packing cases, shipped Belle Époque Paris. from the gallery of Georges The second and largest Hoentschel (1855–1915), section presents selections described as “an architect from the 18th-century holdof distinction in Paris,” and was the gift of J. Trumpeter. South Netherlandish, ca. 1500. Oak ings of the collection in Pierpont Morgan with traces of paint and gilding. The Metropolitan installations inspired by hisphotographs of (1837–1913), one of the Museum of Art, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1916. toric ince early April, the Bard Graduate Center (BGC): Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture has been exhibiting in its gallery “Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Focusing on a remarkable but little-known collection that entered the Metropolitan Museum as a gift of J. Pierpont Morgan in the early 20th century—indeed, it precipitated the building of a new wing—the exhibition features medieval art and French 18thcentury paneling, furniture, metalwork, textiles, paintings, and sculpture, as well as late 19thcentury art pottery, most of which have rarely been viewed since the 1950s. The fourth in a series of collaborations between The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Bard Graduate Center (BGC), the exhibition provides the frst comprehensive examination of Georges Hoentschel, a significant figure in the history of collecting, and illuminates an understudied and critical chapter of the Metropolitan’s history. Daniëlle KislukGrosheide, curator of European decorative arts at
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Frame by Jacques-Charles-Denis Chartier (master in 1760, d. before 1782). Overdoor with a painting of a woman in a straw hat. French, 1770–80. Painted and gilded wood, oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1906.
Hoentschel’s densely arranged showroommuseum in Paris, where the objects served as models for his interior decorating business. Delicately carved woodwork, decorative paintings, and exquisitely chased gilt-bronze mounts are featured here. Highlights include a chair made for Louise-Élisabeth of Parma, daughter of Louis XV; an armchair made for Louis XVI; and a panel from shutters originally installed in a room outside the chapel at Versailles. The third section displays medieval artworks, including sculpture, enamels, ivories, and metalwork, and includes one of the finest surviving examples of French Limoges enamelwork—a 12thcentury reliquary container, or chasse. Also shown here is Jean
Attributed to NicolasQuinibert Foliot (1706–1776), possibly after a design by Pierre Contant d’Ivry (1698–1777). Armchair for Louise-Élisabeth of Parma. French (Paris) and Italian (Parma), ca. 1749. Carved and gilded oak; original silkvelvet upholstery and gold trim. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1906.
Barbet’s Ange du Lude, on loan from the Frick Collection, a rare bronze angel dated 1475, which was one of the most famous works in Hoentschel’s collection. The final section presents examples of Hoentschel’s stoneware and those of his friend, the sculptor and potter JeanJoseph Carriès (1855–1894). Some of these ceramics were originally exhibited in the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs’ pavilion at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, for which Hoentschel created interiors in art nouveau style, unique in his oeuvre. A chair from this pavilion, loaned by the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, is displayed, along with a selection of furnishing textiles used by Hoentschel in interior design commissions. The Book “Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and French Decorative Arts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art” is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue edited by Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, Deborah L. Krohn, and Ulrich Leben. Through scholarly essays, early documentary photographs, and images of newly conserved works, the book considers various aspects of Hoentschel’s life in Parisian social and artistic circles of the time and his career as a successful businessman, ceramist, and designer who was instrumental in exporting French taste abroad. New research documents many of Hoentschel’s clients and commissions and, by scouring newspapers, biographies, and correspondence, the authors have placed him and his collection in a larger social and historical context. The effect his collection had in the United States after it arrived in New York and its publication in a lavish catalogue, mandated by Morgan as part of its purchase, are also explored. Extensive research and (Continued on page 2)