CHINA at Versailles. Art and Diplomacy in the 18th Century - Exhibition Album

CHINA AT VERSAILLES

ART AND DIPLOMACY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

This album has been produced for the exhibition ‘China at Versailles: Art and Diplomacy in the Eighteenth Century,’ which will be presented from May 27 to October 26 2014 in the Appartement de Madame de Maintenon and the Salle des Gardes du Roi at the Château de Versailles.

SCENOGR APHY

CATHERINE PÉGARD

President of the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum, and National Estate of Versailles

Jérôme Dumoux LIGHTING

BÉATRIX SAULE

Director of the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon THIERRY GAUSSERON

General Administrator of the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum, and National Estate of Versailles SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

MARIE-LAURE DE ROCHEBRUNE

Curator at the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon Assisted by Anne-Cécile Sourisseau and Vincent Bastien, art historians

Éric Gall ORGANIZ ATION OF THE EXHIBITION

Department of Cultural Development Denis Verdier-Magneau, Director Silvia Roman, Head of the Exhibitions Department Claire Bonnotte, Cesar Scalassara, Jeanne Bossard, Émilie Neau, Laura Dubosc, and Pauline Aronica In collaboration with the departments of the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum, and National Estate of Versailles

The texts in this album originate from the exhibition catalogue.

The authors and their initials are listed at the end of the book.

The exhibition has been organized by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum, and National Estate of Versailles, with the generous sponsorship of Axa and the Fondation GDF Suez.

GDF SUEZ GDF_SUEZ_fondation_entreprise_FR_RGB 28/11/2013 24, rue Salomon de Rothschild - 92288 Suresnes - FRANCE Tél. : +33 (0)1 57 32 87 00 / Fax : +33 (0)1 57 32 87 87 Web : www.carrenoir.com

RÉFÉRENCES COULEUR

R230 G0 B0

R95 G95 B95

The exhibition has been supported by the Institut Français.

The state visit by President Xi Jinping to the Château de Versailles, on March 24 2014, underlines the extraordinary history of the palace over the centuries. This has little to do with the fact that the President of the French Republic, François Hollande, highlighted the Château de Versailles’ role as a national palace; nor even because the visit was a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China, in the very same Grand Trianon which—again fifty years ago—General de Gaulle turned into an official residence for receiving foreign dignitaries. It is, in fact, related to current affairs that have revealed historical realities that date back further than one might believe and which are often ignored—the history of ‘China at Versailles.’ This history is recounted by a series of previously unseen masterpieces that are revealed in the texts of Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, curator at the Château de Versailles and curator of this exhibition.

The fascination with China had begun with the dissemination of Marco Polo’s wonderful accounts of his travels in the faraway land, but the reign of Louis XIV brought greater equilibrium through the mutual discovery of both countries, an exchange that would last throughout the Ancien Régime. Through the intervention of the Jesuit Fathers, Louis XIV was a precursor in inaugurating ‘cultural diplomacy,’ which reconciled political and economic interests with cultural and scientific exchange.

Exoticism fostered curiosity that resulted in the development of a veritable knowledge of China at the French court and the establishment of unique diplomatic relations that would be the envy of our European neighbors. During the reign of Louis XV—and even more so during that of Louis XVI—the exchanges with China increased, and the demand for ‘things Chinese’ gradually grew. The Siamese ambassadors had lavished many gifts on Louis XIV, and had influenced the royal taste for new colors, materials, and unfamiliar forms. And the king’s successors were equally avid for these Chinese objets d’art, which had a significant influence on French art and artistry: these inspiring objects were transformed, adapted, and embellished. As protectors of the arts, the kings of France only promoted French artistry in their official apartments; however, in the intimacy of their private apartments they were able to give free rein to their personal inclinations, and decorations ‘in the Chinese manner’ were commonplace.

This may explain why these decorations were overlooked for so many years. This exceptional revelation of ‘China at Versailles’ owes much to the tenacity and meticulous work of MarieLaure de Rochebrune.

I would like to thank the curators of the Château de Versailles who, with Béatrix Saule, director of the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, provided invaluable help and support.

I would like to congratulate the authors of this catalogue, whose splendid contributions provide excellent attestations to the intricate links between eighteenth-century art and diplomacy.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to those who have so generously loaned their works and objects, which have revived the Oriental dreams of the court at Versailles.

Last but not least, I hope that Chinese visitors who attend the exhibition will discover some of our shared history.

Catherine Pégard President of the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum, and National Estate of Versailles

‘There is no house in Europe whose antiquity is so well proved as that of the Empire of China.’

VOLTAIRE, Dictionnaire philosophique.

This quote from Voltaire (1694–1778) is one of the finest tributes to the Middle Kingdom by the author of The Orphan of China.1 This admiration for the ancient Chinese civilization was shared by many of his contemporaries, particularly by the French Jesuit missionaries in China, who were the principal informants on Chinese culture. This Sinophilia was also embodied in the second half of the eighteenth century by Henri-Léonard Bertin—a minister who served under Louis XV and Louis XVI—, whose role is highlighted in the exhibition.

Fascination with China and its artistic creations was nothing new in France in the eighteenth century. It had existed in Europe since the Roman period and had continued to exist with varying degrees of intensity. It was even mythologized at the end of the Middle Ages, supported by accounts written by the few explorers who had traveled to the country, such as that of the Venetian adventurer Marco Polo (1254–1324), who reached the court of Kublai Khan (1215–94) in China in the thirteenth century. His book, Divisament dou monde (Description of the World), which was written several years after his return to Europe, had an enormous impact that has lasted up to the modern age.

Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, who founded the Mongol Yuan dynasty, had been impressed by the young man’s intelligence and travel experience and had appointed him to his court. Marco Polo stayed in China for seventeen years and traveled to its remotest provinces. He served as an official ambassador for the Mongol dynasty and was sent on fact-finding missions to distant parts of the empire. He was enthralled by Khanbalik (Beijing), which had become the new capital of China during the Yuan period, and the works of art in the imperial palace. He marveled at the silk production and took a great interest in the manufacture of porcelain. He perceived Mongol China as one of the most peaceful countries in the world.2 His manuscript, which was translated into French in 1310, was very successful in France, where many illuminated copies were produced. King Charles V (1338–80) had five copies in his library and his brother Jean de Berry (1340–1416) possessed three copies. The account by Marco Polo, which was first printed in 1477, painted China as a country that was full of treasure and particularly enchanting exotic phenomena. It had a considerable and lasting impact until the seventeenth century. When Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) set sail for America he took Marco Polo’s book with him. Other accounts by travellers also disseminated the idea that Mongol China was like no other country and that its was governed by peaceful and courteous emperors. At the end of the Middle Ages, the myth that the Ming Dynasty was closed to foreigners persisted. China, which had become inaccessible to Westerners, became even more attractive. This aura persisted in the West, in the modern age, through accounts of the adventures of European Jesuits, particularly those of the famous Father Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), who—through his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy—, had skilfully succeeded in reaching the court of Peking in the very early part of the seventeenth century.

FROM THE PORCELAIN

TRIANON TO MARIE-ANTOINETTE’S

CABINET DORÉ: CHINA AT VERSAILLES MARIE-LAURE DE ROCHEBRUNE

Fig.1 Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors in the Château de Versailles on September 1 1686, black copper etching, in Paris, at Pierre Landry, Rue St. Jacques, St François de Sales, The Almanach Royal of 1687, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Hennin Collection, 5549 Res. Fol. QB-201 (63-fol).

A CENTURY OF SPECIAL DIPLOMATIC REL ATIONS BET WEEN CHINA AND FR ANCE

France’s perception of China and that of its kings began to change during the reign of Louis XIV (1638–1715) (fig. 1). The idyllic image of China, transmitted by Marco Polo’s book, was replaced by first-hand information, sent to France by well-informed observers, who had undertaken their tasks with the utmost seriousness, sometimes at the risk of their own lives.

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Fig. 2 Anonymous, Portrait of Emperor Kangxi in Court Dress, painted silk scroll, Kangxi era (1662–1722), Museum of the Forbidden City, Beijing.

1. Voltaire’s L’Orphelin de la Chine debuted in Paris in 1755. The play was based on the translation of an thirteenth-century Chinese work completed twenty years earlier by Father de Prémare, a French Jesuit in China.

2. This is how Marco Polo described China during the Yuan period in The Description of the World.

3. The sixth Jesuit, Father Tachard, stayed in Siam and never went to China.

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The personal reign of Louis XIV (1661–1715) was a period of particularly enriching mutual discoveries that inaugurated more than one hundred years of special relations between the two countries, which are often overlooked today (fig. 1).

Since the first attempts at establishing trade with China, initiated by Cardinal Mazarin at the end of the 1650s, had failed, the Sun King used other means—religion, culture, and the sciences—to establish contact with the Middle Kingdom. The king initiated a deep interest in Chinese culture in France, particularly though his acquisitions of Chinese books. Supported by his principal ministers, Colbert and then Louvois, and by the Académie des Sciences, established in 1666, Louis XIV implemented a proactive diplomatic and scientific policy with regard to the Middle Kingdom and Emperor Kangxi (1654–1722), who was almost his exact contemporary; the policy certainly bore fruit throughout the eighteenth century (fig. 2). The emperor welcomed the French king’s emissaries and their valuable scientific knowledge.

On September 15 1684, Louis XIV put on a lavish reception at Versailles for a Flemish Jesuit, Father Philippe Couplet (1623–93), who had spent many years at the court of Peking in China.

Father Couplet wished to increase the number of French Jesuit Fathers in China, in order to administer the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy for Emperor Kangxi, and increase the number of missionaries, whose mission was to evangelize the Empire. Father Couplet was accompanied by a young Chinese man, called Shen Fuzong, who had converted to Christianity; he was a living testament to the success of the missions in the Middle Kingdom, and aroused the interest of the entire court. During his visit, Father Couplet offered Louis XIV several Chinese books and succeeded in convincing him of the political, diplomatic, scientific, and even commercial benefits that France could obtain from this significant human and financial investment: the continuation of the program to convert the Chinese to Christianity; expanding French knowledge about China in the fields of medicine, geography, and astronomy; combating the Portuguese dominance of the missions; and, lastly, establishing sustainable trade relations with the Celestial Empire to counter the all-powerful United Provinces of the Netherlands, which—since the creation of the famous Dutch East India Company (VOC; Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) in 1602—had maintained a monopoly over the trade with the Middle Kingdom. Convinced by these arguments, Louis XIV personally financed the expedition of six French Jesuits to China; they were sent as the king’s mathematicians and had been commended by the Académie des Sciences. They left Brest in 1685, equipped with mathematical and astronomical instruments—one of which had been offered by the Duc du Maine (1670–1736), one of Louis XIV’s legitimate sons—to carry out their scientific work. Five of the Jesuits—Fathers Fontaney, Bouvet, Gerbillon, Le Comte, and de Visdelou—reached Peking on February 7 1688,3 after a journey lasting almost three years that first took them to Siam (present-day Thailand), then considered the missionary ‘vestibule’ of China. Admitted to the imperial court, they succeeded—through their knowledge of mathematics, medicine, and astronomy—in winning the trust of Emperor Kangxi and conducted high-level scientific work that continued into the following century. The emperor, whom Voltaire later hailed as a model of virtue, was particularly well disposed towards the Jesuits. Father Bouvet (1656–1730) was one of the first Europeans to highlight the emperor’s goodwill when he returned to France in 1697, on Kangxi’s orders, in order to recruit new missionaries. On that occasion, the emperor gave him Chinese works for Louis XIV. Father Bouvet was also one of the first Jesuit writers to compare Kangxi to Louis XIV, in his famous Portrait historique de l’empereur de la Chine (Historical Portrait of the Emperor of China), printed in Paris in 1697. During their stay at the imperial court of Peking, Fathers Bouvet and Gerbillon had been in daily contact with the emperor and had given him lessons in mathematics and astronomy. The other Fathers had, for their part, left the Chinese capital and gone to various provinces to carry out their mission of evangelization. In 1692, in recognition of their eminent human qualities and scientific skills, Kangxi promulgated an edict of tolerance towards the Christian religion, which was declared an official religion of China, on the same level as Buddhism and Taoism.

Fig. 3 Portraits of Fathers Ricci, Schall, and Verbiest, engraved plate illustrating Jean-Baptiste Du Halde’s Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l’empire de la China et de la Tartarie chinoise, enrichie des cartes générales et particulières de ces pays… & ornée d’un grand nombre de figures & de vignettes gravées en taille douce (Geographical, historical, chronological, political, and physical description of the empire of China and Chinese Tartary; amplified by general and specific maps of that country … and ornamented with numerous engraved illustrations and vignettes), Nicolas-Léger Moutard, Paris, 1770, 3rd Volume, Bibliothèque Municipale de Versailles, Versailles; Reserve collection, in-fol I 3-6 f, pp. 78-79.

Certain Jesuits carried out some rather unusual missions at the imperial court of Peking. Father Gerbillon (1654–1707), who was a talented diplomat, played a decisive role in resolving the thorny issue of the Russo-Chinese borders, brought about by the conflict between the new Manchu Dynasty and Peter the Great, which had lasted several years. Through his efforts, the Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed in 1689, which resolved the dispute between the two powers. Four years later, Father de Fontaney (1643–1710) cured Kangxi who was suffering from malaria, by giving him quinine; the emperor was eternally grateful to him. The combination of these events and the emperor’s goodwill towards the French missionaries led to the creation of a French Jesuit mission in 1700, which was quite independent from the Portuguese mission and the Holy See. This mission certainly contributed for many decades to the enrichment of Chinese knowledge of mathematics and astronomy; it also increased European knowledge of China and fostered reflection among intellectuals in the Age of Enlightenment, beyond the borders of the kingdom of France. The French missionaries decisively contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about China in Europe. However, though the French Jesuit mission bore fruit until the end of the eighteenth century, it incurred the wrath of many Portuguese Jesuits and other religious congregations present in China. These divisions and jealousies were largely responsible for the Chinese Rites Controversy, which definitively ended any hope of Christianizing China, alienated the Chinese authorities, divided Europe throughout the eighteenth century, and culminated in the definitive dissolution of the Society of Jesus by Pope Clement XIV in 1773.

The accounts of the Jesuit Fathers’ travels increased in the eighteenth century, particularly with the publication (1702–76) of the famous Edifying and Curious Letters sent during a period of almost three-quarters of a century by the missionaries to their superiors and the Order’s benefactors, who remained in Europe. This correspondence certainly shed new light on Western knowledge of China. Some of the letters were integrated into the famous work by Father JeanBaptiste Du Halde (1674–1743), Geographic, Historical, Chronological, Political, and Physical Description of the Chinese Empire and Chinese Tartary. Enriched with General and Particular Maps of These Countries, which was first published in Paris in 1735 and re-edited in 1770 (fig. 3). In this work, which was held in all the finest libraries in the eighteenth century, Du Halde had brought together 7

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Fig. 4 Joseph-Marie Vien (1716–1809), St François-Xavier Landing in China, oil on canvas, 1753, Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles; on permanent loan from the Musée Louis-Senlecq, L’Isle-Adam, inventory no. MV 9044.

4. Dangeau (Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau), Journal du marquis de Dangeau, published by E. Soulier, L. Dussieux, P. de Chennevières, P. Mantz, and A. de Montaiglon, Paris, Firmin Didot, vol. VII, pp. 226–227: ‘After supper we enjoyed a splendid masquerade of the king of China, with ballet and music, and afterwards the ball continued until midnight. The dancers at the ball included Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne and his brothers, Messeigneurs M. de Chartres, M. le Duc […].’

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the observations of the king’s mathematicians, Father Bouvet’s travel diaries, extensive maps, and a very precise description of the various provinces in China and their principal cities. The ensemble, which contained all sorts of interesting information, thrilled the French intellectuals and aroused the enthusiasm of the Sinophiles. Several members of the royal family, particularly Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, the Comtesse de Provence, and the king’s daughters, Mesdames, possessed copies of the work.

Under the reigns of Louis XV (1710–74) and Louis XVI (1754–93), the French Jesuit mission in China remained vibrant and active, despite the Chinese Rites Controversy and the dissolution of the Society of Jesus, particularly through the support of the General Controller of Finance and later Secretary of State, Henri-Léonard Bertin (1720–92). He was a well-informed Sinologist and supporter of the physiocrats, who was very interested in the sciences and Chinese production; he regularly corresponded with the Jesuit Fathers in China (fig. 4). Bertin tenaciously supported the French Jesuit missions in China and their publications, particularly through the major editorial project which, as of 1776, involved the publication (Nyon the Elder, Paris) of the Memoirs Concerning the History, Sciences, Arts, Manners, Customs, &c. of the Chinese. By the Missionaries of Peking.. In addition to developing French knowledge of China, he was committed to enriching the Royal Library with Chinese works, and disseminating knowledge about France in China, facilitated by the privileged position of the Jesuits at the imperial court. As of 1764, Bertin entered into regular correspondence with French and Chinese Jesuits at the imperial court of Peking; this correspondence is currently held in the library of the Institut de France. His principal correspondents included Fathers Ko and Yang, two young Chinese Jesuits, and Fathers Cibot and Amiot, and Father Panzi. Bertin financed the publication of this correspondence in the first fifteen volumes of Memoirs Concerning [...] the Chinese, mentioned above. This correspondence constitutes a valuable testimony to the importance that Bertin attached to the diplomatic relations between France and the Middle Kingdom in the second half of the eighteenth century.

It also attests to his desire to increase his knowledge of Chinese resources and know-how in many fields, such as agriculture, trade, the production of tea, silk, and porcelain, in order to contribute to the development of the French economy and sciences. It significantly contributed to the emergence—in the second half of the eighteenth century—of modern Sinology. This correspondence did of course have a considerable impact on the court of Versailles, and also on contemporary intellectual circles, particularly those of the philosophers and economists.

Certain members of the royal family sympathized with the situation of the Jesuit missionaries in China. Queen Marie Leszczynska (1703–68), who was very pious, took a personal interest in the story of the first members of the Society of Jesus who reached the Far East, as attested by a canvas painted for a cabinet in her Interior Apartments at Versailles: Saint Francis Xavier Landing in China by Joseph-Marie Vien (1716–1809). This work, which represents an event that did not actually take place—François Xavier never fulfilled his dream to disembark at Canton and died on December 3 1552, on Sancian Island, across the sea from Canton—, was an object of worship, like its pendant, Saint Thomas the Apostle Preaching to the Indians, which has now disappeared. The fact that these two paintings were presented in the heart of the queen’s private apartment is not without significance.

In the eighteenth century, the French Jesuits maintained their influence at the Chinese imperial court through their scientific knowledge, and also their skills as painters, musicians, architects, hydraulic engineers, and hydrographers. Father Jean-Denis Attiret (1702–68) became painter to the emperor and participated, in collaboration with the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766), in the execution of drawings celebrating Emperor Qianlong’s victories in northern China, during the 1750s. These drawings gave rise to one of the most famous commissions for engravings, which was entrusted to France in 1765 and became a veritable affair of state.

Another Jesuit, Father Michel Benoît (1715–74), an astronomer by profession, also impressed the court with his skills as an architect and hydraulic engineer, and contributed to the construction of certain palaces and ornamental waterworks in the Yuanming Yuan, in the very heart of the Forbidden City in Peking.

THE FASCINATION WITH CHINESE ART AND ARTISTRY

Fig. 5 Perfume Fountain: Chinese porcelain and gilt bronze, porcelain, Jingdezhen, China, Kangxi era (1662–1722); gilded bronze, Paris, c.1785, Département des Objets d’art, Musée du Louvre, Paris, inventory no. OA 7.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, this admiration for the ancient Chinese civilization was complemented by a veritable fascination with Chinese art and artistry, both in the French royal court and among the main connoisseurs of the day. This had already existed in the mid-seventeenth century, as attested by the collections of Cardinal Mazarin, godfather of King Louis XIV. At the beginning of the Louis XIV’s reign, it was this taste for a marvellous and imaginary China that led to the erection in 1670 of an edifice—the ‘Porcelain Trianon’—at Versailles, designed by the architect Louis Le Vau, which was loosely inspired by the Nanking porcelain pagoda. The image of the latter had been widely disseminated by the illustrations in Jean Nieuhoff ’s work, An Embassy from the East India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperor of China, published in Leyden in 1665. Sixteen years after the construction of the Porcelain Trianon, the visit of the Siamese ambassadors, who came bearing many gifts for the royal family, must have kindled the court’s desire for Chinese objets d’art. Indeed, the gifts sent by the Siamese royal family comprised many Chinese works, silverware and goldware, a large decorative screen ‘with twelve panels, made in Peking,’ wallpapers decorated with flowers and birds, carpets, hardstones, Chinese and Japanese lacquerwork furniture, and porcelain from the ‘Indies,’ which in reality came from China. While the king received the largest number of objects, ‘fifteen hundred or fifteen hundred and fifty items of porcelain,’ the Dauphin and Dauphine, the Duc de Bourgogne, and the Duc d’Anjou were also sent gifts by the king of Siam, Phra Narai (1633–88).

Since Vasco de Gama’s discovery of the sea route to China via the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese, English, and the United East India Company of the Netherlands had provided a constant supply of Chinese objects d’art to the French market. In 1700, the relay was taken up by the French East India Company, which was controlled by the State, its main shareholder. The Company had been established by Colbert in 1664, but only really became active at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The founder aimed to procure part of the trade with Asia for the French kingdom and ensure that the Dutch did not monopolize the market. At this date the Company’s imports of Chinese objects rapidly increased and the taste for China and its arts attained its high point, having a lasting impact on the development of the influence of Chinese art on French art.

All these events were echoed in the French court, at Versailles, as well as in its satellite residences, located in the Île-de-France—Marly, le Val, la Muette, Meudon, Choisy, Bellevue, and Saint Cloud—at the end of the eighteenth century. On January 7 1700, at Marly, Louis XIV’s favorite residence, the new year of the new century kicked off with Chinese festivities. André Danican Philidor (1652–1730) had been commissioned to compose the Mascarade of the King of China for the event, which was also performed the following day, according to the Marquis de Dangeau (fig. 5).4 In his official apartment at Versailles, Louis XIV and his successors, as the official protectors of French artists and artisans, and the royal manufactories, could not display their personal taste for Chinese arts, but they did give free rein to their tastes in the privacy of their interior apartments and in their favorite retreats.

Porcelain was one of the most powerful vectors for the introduction of Chinese art into the French court. This substance was seen as white gold until the middle of the eighteenth century, because of its rarity and secretive fabrication techniques; it began to enter the French royal collections in small quantities in the sixteenth century, during the reign of François I. During Louis XIV’s reign, Chinese porcelain in royal residences became far more numerous. The king possessed a number of items in Versailles, most of which were gifts from the ambassadors of Siam, as well as in the Château du Val, near Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and in his beloved Marly. His eldest son the Grand Dauphin, the Duc d’Orléans, and the Prince de Condé, also turned out to be some of the greatest collectors of Chinese porcelain of their era.

The craze for Chinese porcelain, during the reign of Louis XIV and during the Régence, was echoed in contemporary painting, particularly in the works of Alexandre-François Desportes, who often depicted Chinese porcelain in his still-life paintings or his silverware buffets, which were sometimes produced for the royal residences, such as Marly (fig. 6) or, later, Choisy.

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Fig. 6 François Boucher (1703–70), Lady Fastening her Garter, oil on canvas, 1742, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, inventory no. 58 (1967.4).

5. Louis Courajod (Louis), Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, marchand bijoutier ordinaire du roy, 1748-1758 (Book-Diary of Lazare Duvaux, Ordinary Merchant Jeweller of the King), Société des Bibliophiles Français, Paris vol. II, p. 241, no. 2137.

6. Named after the famous eighteenth-century Parisian family of varnishers.

7. Inventory no. 1973.315.1.

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While the first Chinese porcelain attested at Versailles and its satellite residences was most often adorned with blue and white decoration, from 1730 to 1740 there was a marked preference for celadons or monochrome glazes, to which gilt-bronze mounts were systematically added; this added to their value and adapted them to French taste, attesting to the expertise of the Parisian founders. The taste of the members of the royal family for mounted Chinese porcelain is illustrated in this exhibition by the presence of the famous perfume fountain, which was delivered in 1743 to Louis XV’s wardrobe at Versailles by the Parisian marchandmercier Thomas-Joachim Hébert. Louis XV also acquired objects from the art dealer Lazare Duvaux, including several pieces of Chinese porcelain for the Grand Trianon, in particular, on April 22 1755: ‘a large blue ancient porcelain vase, with gilded cast bronze mounts […] two fluted celadon-green porcelain bottles, with gilded cast bronze mounts […].’5 Louis XV’s taste was shared by his mistress, Madame de Pompadour (1721–64), who filled all her residences in Paris and Versailles—particularly the Hôtel d’Évreux (now the Elysée Palace)—with Chinese porcelain with very lavish mounts (fig. 7). The royal family’s taste for mounted Chinese porcelain continued during the reign of the next king, at Bellevue, the residence of the king’s daughters, Mesdames, at the Comte de Provence’s residence; and, above all, Queen Marie-Antoinette acquired rare pieces with sumptuous mounts for the Gilded Study and the Cabinet of the Meridian at Versailles.

At the end of the seventeenth century, other Chinese products were also particularly appreciated at the French court, such as lacquer, hardstones, inlaid jewelry, fans, fabrics, and wallpapers. The wallpapers were exported to Europe at the end of the sixteenth century by the English East India Company, and seem to have been highly appreciated by the entire royal family in the mid-eighteenth century. They had numerous applications: they were used to decorate walls, fireplace screens, decorative screens, and hand screens (or fans), as seen in François Boucher’s admirable painting Lady Fastening her Garter (fig. 8). They are also attested at Louis XV’s residence at Choisy, in Madame de Pompadour’s apartment and her hermitage at Versailles, as well as in the Château de Bellevue, and in the residence of the Dauphine Marie-Josèphe de Saxe. In 1747, Queen Marie Leszczynska had Chinese wallpapers put up in one of the cabinets of her private apartment, which later (in 1761) became the Chinese Cabinet.

The taste for Chinese art in France, which was propagated by the merchandise transported on the vessels of the French East India Company, also had a considerable influence on French art, and produced three distinct phenomena: the transformation of the imported works, their imitation, and their use by French artists and artisans as sources of inspiration.

Although it may seem strange to modern readers, at the time these imported Chinese objects were quickly transformed and enhanced to adapt them to French taste. The oldest and most famous example of this phenomenon was the addition of precious metal mounts to Chinese porcelain ware, which had been practised since the end of the Middle Ages. This ancestral tradition experienced a golden age in the eighteenth century with the development of the technique of gilding bronze, a speciality of the Parisian fondeurs-ciseleurs (casters and finishers), as attested by several pieces of mounted Chinese porcelain from the royal collections, which are included in this exhibition. Chinese lacquers, in the form of decorative screens or cabinets, which transited on the ships that sailed along the Coromandel coast, were also subjected to radical transformations by French cabinet-makers, on the instigation of the marchands-merciers. Hence, these objects were stripped of their lacquerwork panels, which were then fitted to cabinet-makers’ furniture and often enhanced with gilt-bronze fittings.

Another aspect of the taste for Chinese objects was manifested by the desire to imitate Chinese products, whose manufacturing methods were often difficult for Europeans to fathom. In France, this was manifested by two significant consequences, the most obvious of which was the frenetic quest for the fabrication secrets of Chinese porcelain. This was actively encouraged by the French authorities during Louis XIV’s reign, particularly at the Rouen Manufactory in the 1670s, and materialized one hundred years later at the Sèvres Manufactory, after the discovery of kaolin deposits at Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche, in Limousin.

Until that point, in France, an artificial ‘soft-paste’ porcelain was used, which contained no kaolin. The second result was the invention, from the 1670s onwards, of French varnishes that imitated Chinese lacquer, which complemented, or even replaced Far-Eastern lacquer, which was considered too costly. At Versailles, in the mid-eighteenth century, one of the finest examples of furniture coated in French varnish ‘in the Chinese fashion’ was the sumptuous writing table with red and gold japanning (in imitation of Chinese lacquer) and decorations of Chinese pagodas and landscapes, which was delivered to Louis XV by Gilles Joubert for the Corner Cabinet, in December 1759 (fig. 9). This piece of furniture, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, lacquered with vernis Martin, 6 attests to the king’s taste for Chinese objects in the very heart of his private royal apartment. 7 The third consequence of the craze for Chinese artistic wares was the creation of French works of art with Chinese subjects or inspired by illustrated descriptions of China; this applied to many fields, such as painting, prints, tapestry, ceramics, textiles, bronze fittings, architecture, garden art, and so on. This eighteenth-century movement had a large impact on Versailles and its satellite residences. Hence, in 1736, the Chinese Hunt, painted by Jean-Baptiste Pater, was included in the cycle of the Exotic Hunts, which was commissioned by the king for the Petite Galerie, in Versailles. In 1761, a Chinese Cabinet, created by French painters, was installed in place of Marie Leszczynska’s cabinet, mentioned earlier, which had been fitted with Chinese wallpapers in 1747. The China illustrated by painters chosen by the queen was not entirely imaginary, as it had been inspired by works written and illustrated by men who had actually traveled to China, such as Jean Nieuhoff or, more recently, William Chambers. The number of French textiles woven, and sometimes embroidered and painted ‘in the Chinese manner’ greatly increased at Versailles and in other royal residences, like Compiègne, during the reign of Louis XVI. In the library installed for the king in 1774, in his private apartment at Versailles, the chairs were fitted with painted ‘pekin’ silk fabric. The fabrics in the Cabinet of the Meridian, created by Richard Mique in 1781, which were entirely woven at Lyon, were enhanced with embroidery à la chinoise. During 1770–80, Chinese themes became more widespread with the new production of hard-paste porcelain, which was developed by the Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory. They were highly appreciated by the royal family, which purchased many pieces adorned with this type of decoration. Some of these pieces, which are now in the English royal collection or in the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg, are included in the exhibition.

Lastly, the influence of China on French art attained a sort of apotheosis in the Petit Trianon at Versailles, when an Anglo-Chinese garden was planted in 1776, under the direction of Richard Mique. Like the ‘Chartres’ Folly’ (now Parc Monceau in Paris), the latter was a kind of miniature world, where China, with the famous but ephemeral Jeu de Bague Chinois, was put on an equal footing with ancient Greece, when the Temple de l’Amour was erected two years later.

Fig. 7 Gilles Joubert (1689–1775), Writing table, with red and gold japanning, for Louis XV’s cabinet intérieur, 1759, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; gift of Mr and Mrs Charles Wrightsman in 1973, inventory no. 1973.315.1.

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ALLEGORY OF LOUIS XIV, PROTECTOR OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES

This effigy of Louis XIV was painted in homage to an ideal, Jean Garnier (1632–1705) enlightened patron, and protector of the arts and sciences, Oil on canvas c.1672 which were sources of wealth for 163 x 204 cm the kingdom. The sovereign’s Provenance: the artist’s reception piece was presented to the representation is martial as he Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in January 1672; is wearing armor adorned with formerly in the Académie’s collection; confiscated during the fleurs-de-lys, in a portrait set Revolution. Transferred to Versailles in 1798 off by a false frame, based on Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles a painting by Claude Lefèvre Inventory no. MV 2184 executed between 1665 and 1670. The effigy is surrounded by cleverly arranged symbols of the arts, illustrated here by various musical instruments (bass viola da gamba, violin, guitar, musette de cour, etc.), and by the plan of the Maison Carrée in Nîmes. The sovereign’s role as protector of the sciences is represented by the celestial globe, which features the constellations of the zodiac, and by scientific works and various scientific instruments.

It should be recalled that in 1666 and 1667, with the firm support of his minister Colbert, Louis XIV had established the Académie Royale des Sciences and the Observatoire de Paris, respectively.

Louis XIV succeeded in establishing contact with Emperor Kangxi (1654–1722) through the sciences.

The five Jesuit emissaries dispatched to the imperial court of Peking were sent as mathematicians, which helped to win the emperor’s trust. The example had been set many years earlier by two famous Jesuit fathers, Adam Schall and Ferdinand Verbiest, who, on the demand of Kangxi’s father, Emperor Shunzhi, had presided over the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy, entrusted with correcting the imperial calendar. The success with which the Jesuits accomplished their mission and informed the Europeans about all their discoveries in China fulfilled all of Louis XIV’s expectations. In 1696, Father Le Comte, one of Louis XIV’s five mathematicians and one of those— along with Father Bouvet—who corresponded with Abbot Bignon at the Académie des Sciences, published in France the Mémoires sur l’état présent de la Chine (New Memoirs on the Current State of China), which disseminated the latest knowledge about the Middle Kingdom. The mission of the Jesuits sent to China

by Louis XIV continued to be fruitful throughout the next century, particularly with the publication of the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses (Edifying and Curious Letters) records of French and foreign Jesuit missionaries’ correspondence (from 1702 onwards) with Europeans; and with the Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l’empire de la China et de la Tartarie chinoise (1735; Geographic, Historical, Chronological, Political, and Physical Description of the Chinese Empire and Chinese Tartary) compiled by Father Du Halde.

M.-L. R.

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C H I N A AT V E R S A I L L E S : A R T A N D D I P L O M AC Y I N T H E E I G H T E E N T H C E N T U RY

CUP

This precious cup, with handles in the form of two facing dragons, is probably one of the first Chinese objects to have entered Louis XIV’s collections. It originally belonged to Cardinal Mazarin, who acquired it between 1653 and 1661. It was described in the inventory after his death as ‘a small white jade cup, with two handles of the same stone, carved in the shape of harpies.’ According to Patrick Michel, the cardinal possessed eight pieces in jade among his gemstones; in 1665, the king acquired most of the latter—around two hundred items—

White jade China Ming dynasty (1368–1644) H: 5.5 cm; L: 12.9 cm; D: 7.3 cm Provenance: formerly in Cardinal Mazarin’s Collection.

Acquired in 1665 by Louis XIV Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, Paris Inventory no. MR 204

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from the cardinal’s heirs, including the famous nef (incense-boat) of Rudolf II. The gemstones were initially presented at Versailles, then at the Tuileries. When they were returned to Versailles in 1682 they were placed in the Cabinet of Curiosities, located where Louis XVI would later install his Games Room. This was accessed via the Abundance Salon, whose ceiling, painted by Houasse, provided a vibrant backdrop to the royal collections of hardstones.

Jade is an extremely hard gemstone and very difficult to work; it is venerated in China and considered to be a precious stone. White jade is considered to be the purest of all the jades.

M.-L. R.

THE PORCELAIN TRIANON, COURT SIDE

This engraving, executed by Delespine, depicts the precious Engraving château constructed in the Chic.1670–80 nese manner by the architect Le 38.5 x 49 cm Vau in 1670, within the estate of Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles Versailles; it provided a retreat Inventory no. GRAV 70 for Louis XIV and his mistress Madame de Montespan. Flanked by a court and garden, the edifice was erected where the village of Trianon (Triasnum) had stood since the Middle Ages; it featured a circular forecourt and two wings, terminated by small pavilions that housed the culinary services. Hence, Saint-Simon described the first Trianon as a ‘porcelain house for light refreshments.’ Indeed, the king never slept in this country château, which contained two rooms followed by a cabinet, ‘next to which is a projecting aviary and a wardrobe.’ These apartments flanked an entrance hall and a room with a view of the gardens. Diana’s room was to the right and that of the Cupids to the left, both containing large beds that were considered to be ‘extraordinary.’ Adorned with blue and white painted stucco panels, attributed to Pierre Mazeline, Willem Swidde the Younger (1661–97)

varnished and ‘masticq’ furniture, and ivory, supplied by Pierre Gole, silk fabrics sewn with Chinese flowers with gold and blue compartments, from the tapestry-maker Le Roux, the interior and exterior were equally beautiful. The edifice’s exterior was entirely covered with blue and white faïence, notably the mansard roof, and adorned with vases, children, and animals, which evoked Chinese architecture, although the overall design remained decidedly French. The façade was embellished with busts placed at regular intervals. All the manufactories— Delft, Saint-Cloud, Nevers, Rouen, and Lisieux—, supplied these blue and white ‘pourceleine’ decorations executed ‘in the Chinese fashion,’ which even decorated the garden vases. Hence, the château was soon referred to as the ‘Trianon of Porcelain.’ It was very fragile and was subject to the rigors of the harsh seventeenth-century winters, but, above all, the building’s demise coincided with the official termination of the affair between the Marquise de Montespan and the king; in 1687 it was torn down and replaced by the Marble Trianon, the work of the court architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart.

J. B. 15

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THE ASTRONOMERS

The tapestries of The Story of the Emperor of China series, which include this piece, were woven at the Beauvais Manufactory from 1690 onwards, under the Piece from the First Chinese Tapestry direction of Philippe Béhagle from the Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory (1641–1705). The series comBasse lisse tapestry, wool and silk; woven under the direction of Philippe Béhagle prises nine pieces that recount Beauvais Manufactory the travels of the emperor of First third of the eighteenth century China and depict the sojourn 320 x 410 cm of the Jesuit astronomers at the Provenance: formerly in the collection of Paul Leblanc-Duvernoy (1840–1926); classified among the Monuments Historiques imperial court of Peking. on June 19 1951 The Astronomers depicts the Musées d’Art et d’Histoire d’Auxerre, Auxerre emperor of China—Charissa Inventory no. 26.1.1 Bremer-David believes that the emperor is Shunzhi (reigned 1644–61)—surrounded by several animated figures near a celestial globe, an armillary sphere, and telescopes.

The emperor is dressed in red and on his chest he bears the imperial emblem of the dragon. Sitting opposite him, holding a compass, is Father Adam Schall (1592–1666), who was the director of the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy; he is wearing Mandarin clothing adorned with a plastron featuring a bird with spread wings. On the right, Father Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–88) is standing at the foot of the armillary sphere. He is leaning towards a child who is holding a book and a compass; he could very well be Shunzhi’s son, the young Kangxi (1654–1722). The scene depicted may have taken place shortly after the arrival of Father Verbiest, who was summoned to Peking

by Father Schall in 1660 to work on correcting the imperial calendar, just before the premature death of Emperor Shunzhi in 1661. Depicted in the background are a city’s perimeter wall and a pagoda with several tiers that is reminiscent of the pagoda at Nanking, the capital of China during the Ming era. The architectural decorative elements, which also feature on other pieces of the tapestry, were probably inspired by the many engravings in Jean Nieuhoff ’s work.

There is a wider version of the Astronomers tapestry, which depicts a Jesuit Father on the left-hand side, After designs by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636–99), Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay (1653–1715), and Guy-Louis Vernansal (1648–1729)

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probably Adam Schall again, standing at the foot of a stairway surmounted by a temple.

The Belgian Jesuit Father Philippe Couplet (1623–93) returned from China with a young Chinese Jesuit, Shen Fuzong (1658–91), and when they visited Versailles in 1684, they made a strong impression on the court, particularly on the young Duc du Maine (1670–1736), the legitimized son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. Edith Standen and Madeleine Jarry have advanced the hypothesis that this encounter may have inspired the tapestry’s theme. The first two tapestries were commissioned by the Duc du Maine and his younger brother, the Comte de Toulouse (1678– 1737). The Duc du Maine paid the considerable sum of 20,000 livres for his tapestry, which was woven with wool, silk, and gold threads. That of the Comte de Toulouse, which was woven without gold threads and comprised ten pieces bearing his monogram in the border, cost 10,565 livres: its presence in the Comte’s Château de Rambouillet is attested in 1718.

While the Duc du Maine’s tapestry has not been identified, that of the Comte de Toulouse has survived. Two pieces were bought by Empress Eugénie and installed in the Château de Compiègne’s music room, where they have remained. The other eight pieces were present in the sale of LouisPhilippe’s collections—he was a descendant of the Comte de Toulouse by his mother—, when they were dispersed in two lots. The six pieces in the first lot, including The Astronomers, currently feature in the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collections, in Los Angeles.

This tapestry was very popular and was woven several times at the Beauvais Manufactory, until the cartoons became too worn, in 1732. François Boucher (1703–70) was then commissioned to produce sketches for a new set of tapestries and, from 1743 onwards, the Second Chinese Tapestry was produced at Beauvais.

As the piece exhibited here has a simple scrolled border it is generally believed to be a tapestry produced in the first third of the eighteenth century. A.-C. S.

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PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XV Studio of Louis Michel Van Loo (1707–71) Oil on canvas c.1761–65 72 x 56 cm Provenance: formerly in the royal collections Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles Inventory no. MV 190

Like his great-grandfather, Louis XV was committed to protecting French artists and manufactories. And his taste for Chinese works and French works influenced by Chinese art was particularly evident in his private rooms at Versailles and his favorite residences in Île-de-France, particularly La Muette and Choisy.

The Château de la Muette in Paris, where Watteau had executed the first decorations in the Chinese manner in the eighteenth century, was purchased by Louis XV from the Regent in 1719.

It was entirely refurbished between 1741 and 1745

by Jacques V Gabriel and his son, Ange-Jacques.

Louis XV stayed there regularly in the 1750s.

At La Muette, the king gave free rein to his taste for Chinese porcelain. On April 9 1754, Duvaux delivered to ‘Monsieur le Premier: two pots pourris from the Indies [China] in relief, ornamented with gilded cast bronze 288 l. […] A lacquered tray with rim, 72 1. for the king [at] La Muette.’

On January 26 1755, the art dealer made another sale to ‘Monsieur le Premier: the gilt cast bronze feet made for the two blue pots pourris, 18 1, for La Muette.’The Château de Choisy, which was acquired by Louis XV in 1739, provided a retreat for the king and his mistress Madame de Mailly, for whom the famous Chambre Bleue—with its furniture painted in French varnish, in the manner of Chinese lacquer—was refurbished in 1742.

Chinese taste also reigned in the King’s Apartment at Choisy, as we will see later.

The king’s taste for the Far East was also evident in the many gifts that he acquired, in particular from the art dealer Duvaux, for members of his family and Madame de Pompadour. These gifts were often lacquered objects from the Far East.

Hence, on May 14 1751, Duvaux delivered on behalf of the king to Madame Adélaïde: ‘A boîte à parfiler [literally a box for unraveling old ribbons and worn tapestry trim] in aventurine lacquer and gold, ornamented with openings and gold hinges […] 365 l.’ And on May 19, Madame Victoire received a similar present. Louis XV steadfastly supported the initiative of his minister Bertin, a well-informed Sinologist, who maintained regular contact with the French Jesuists in China.

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Bertin secured for France a wonderful commission for engravings of the Conquests of the Emperor of China. In order to maintain the healthy diplomatic relations established with China since the reign of Louis XIV, Bertin sent gifts on behalf of the king to Emperor Qianlong, which included, among others, scientific instruments, porcelains Sèvres, and a complete series of the Second Chinese Tapestry, which was based on François Boucher’s sketches and woven at Beauvais.

M.-L. R.

PORTRAIT OF EMPEROR QIANLONG (1711–99) Attributed to Father Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766) Glue-based paint on paper c.1736 56.2 x 42.3 cm Musée National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, Paris Inventory no. MG 26586

Emperor Qianlong, represented in this painting at a very young age and in half format, reigned in China from 1736 to 1795, the year in which he abdicated. He stabilized China’s northern borders through various military campaigns, conducted with success between 1755 and 1759. Qianlong is wearing the fur hat, surmounted by a pearl, which he can also be seen wearing in the Sèvres porcelain plaque, painted by Asselin in 1776.

Giuseppe Castiglione began to paint during the period of his noviciate in the Genoese Society of Jesus, in 1707. He completed his training at Coimbra, in Portugal, and then traveled to China in 1714. He arrived in Peking in 1715 and was soon presented to Empereur Kangxi. He immediately began working in the imperial painting studio with the Neapolitan painter Matteo Ripa (1682–1745).

His Chinese name was Lang Shining. He remained in Peking until his death in 1766. On a silk scroll painting by Castiglione, now in the Museum of the Forbidden City in Beijing, Qianlong wrote of the painter: ‘Shining excels in the art of portraiture; he has painted me in my youth […].’ Castiglione, like his European confrères, Panzi and, particularly, Attiret, learnt to master the techniques of Chinese painting. Castiglione was also famous for his representations of horses. He participated in the execution of The Battles of the Emperor of China, and drawings for engravings executed in Paris under the direction of Charles-Nicolas Cochin. He also contributed, in collaboration with the French Jesuit Father Benoist, to the decoration of the edifices and gardens created by Qianlong in the enclosure of the Yuanming M.-L. R. Yuan, the emperor’s Summer Palace.

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THE CHINESE HUNT

The cycle of nine Exotic Hunts, called ‘Hunting in Foreign Oil on canvas Countries’, was executed for 1736 Louis XV between 1735 and Signed and dated on the lower left-hand side 1739 by some of his finest 172 x 127 cm painters, François Boucher, Provenance: originally part of Louis XV’s collections; installation in 1737; consigned to the Surintendance Jean-François de Troy, Charles des Bâtiments in 1739; transferred to the Muséum Central Parrocel, Nicolas Lancret, des Arts in 1794; loaned to the Château de Fontainebleau Jean-Baptiste Pater, and Carle between 1832 and 1922. In the Musée d’Amiens since 1923, Van Loo. They were deson permanent loan from the Musée du Louvre.

The Musée de Picardie, Amiens, loaned by Department tined to adorn the King’s of Paintings in the Musée du Louvre Little Cabinets at Versailles.

Musée d’Amiens inventory no. 2088. Musée du Louvre The first commission, dated Inventory no. 7144 1735, comprised six paintings, including The Chinese Hunt. It was commissioned when the Duc d’Antin was the Superintendant of Buildings. The ensemble was executed to decorate the Small Gallery installed in the King’s Small Apartment in Versailles, on the second floor, north of the Marble Court. To the east the gallery was preceded by a winter dining room, which was reduced in size in 1738 to make way for the Small Gallery. This extension work led to the commission of three more paintings.

In 1995, Xavier Salmon observed that the nine paintings that comprised the ensemble had been executed by history painters rather than animal Jean-Baptiste Pater (1695–1736)

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painters, and rightly recalled the precedent set by Rubens’ famous Lion Hunt, in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. All the paintings were lavishly framed in gilt wood in the rocaille manner.

It appears that The Chinese Hunt was not as successful as expected, because in 1739, it was transferred to the Building Superintendancy and replaced by Carle Van Loo’s Ostrich Hunt. Pater, a disciple— with Lancret—of Watteau, and painter of fêtes galantes, was probably not entirely at ease with executing grand history paintings.

The Dauphine Marie-Josèphe de Saxe (1731–67) occupied the King’s Small Apartment for a while, from November 1766 onwards, after the death of her husband, the Dauphin Louis (1729–65). The Small Gallery was transformed into a grand cabinet for the princess. The Exotic Hunts paintings were taken down after her death, on March 13 1767.

The premises were then refurbished before the new royal mistress, the Comtesse Du Barry, moved in in December 1770. The ensemble of the Exotic Hunts, which was transferred to the Louvre during the Revolution, was dismantled in 1801, when four of them were transferred to the Congrès de la Paix in Amiens. The nine Hunts have been reunited in the Musée d’Amiens since 1923.

M.-L. R.

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This ‘truittée’ (indicating a minute network of cracks in the glaze) porcelain vase sits on a sumptuous gilt-bronze base with a distinctive rocaille style. A swan with spread wings, whose beak serves as a tap, can be seen emerging from the reeds and scroll foliage that constitute the base. The cover, surrounded by gilt-bronze scrolled leaves, is surmounted with a crayfish in the same metal. The mounts transform this baluster vase into a perfume fountain; the bronze fittings—the seashells, reeds, the swan, and the crayfish—evoke the theme of water. The ensemble was originally complemented by two hounds and a Chinese porcelain bowl, which are now missing.

The founder whom Hébert commissioned to execute the bronze fittings was probably inspired by a drawing by the Slodtz brothers, which was identified by Pierre Verlet in 1961. The object was consigned, as was customary, after the death of Louis XV, to the premier gentilhomme de la chambre, the Duc d’Aumont (1709–82). He was an avid collector of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, as

PERFUME FOUNTAIN

Porcelain with crackled celadon glaze and brown ceramic; Jingdezhen, China, beginning of the Qianlong era (1736–95); gilt bronze mounts.

Paris, c.1743 H: 58 cm; D (vase): 34 cm Provenance: delivered on May 18 1743 by the art dealer Hébert for Louis XV’s wardrobe at Versailles; attributed after the king’s death to the Duc d’Aumont; Aumont Sale, Paris, December 12 1782, lot 193; acquired by the dealer Julliot; sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, March 17 1956, lot 51, pl. XVII. Donated by the heirs of Patiño in 1985 Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles Inventory no. V 5251

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attested by the catalogue of the auction after his death, which took place in Paris in December 1782. Four hundred Far-Eastern porcelain items featured in the catalogue, and were presented in one hundred and ninety lots. Many were bought

by Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette through the intermediary of the dealer Julliot; the fountain was acquired by the dealer, but it is unknown on whose behalf. In 1782, it was still accompanied by its porcelain hounds. It reappeared almost two centuries later in Paris, but unfortunately the two hounds were missing.

This perfume fountain is the only item of Chinese porcelain that has been clearly identified as having belonged to Louis XV. Indeed, with the help of Hébert and Duvax, the king did acquire other Chinese porcelains, for his different residences.

Hence, on December 17 1750, he acquired from the latter ‘two celestial blue porcelain vases fitted with gilded cast bronze,’ probably for Versailles.

In the mid-eighteenth century, it was common practice to enhance porcelain from the Far East with highly luxurious gilt-bronze mounts, which enabled the Parisian founders to demonstrate their expertise and ensure that these porcelain pieces satisfied the most refined French taste.

M.-L. R.

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PORTRAIT OF HENRI-LÉONARDJEAN-BAPTISTE BERTIN

Louis XV’s minister is portrayed sitting at his desk, holding his Alexander Roslin (1718–93) hat, with his sword at his side, as though he is preparing to Oil on canvas 1768 stand up. He is wearing the sash Signed and dated on the right: Roslin S/1768 and breast star of the Order of 147 x 113 cm the Holy Ghost, for which he Provenance: formerly in Henri-Léonard Bertin’s collection; was Grand Treasurer between then, through his sister’s descendants, in the collection of Monsieur and Madame de Montferrand 1762 and 1781. The portrait is Château de Montréal (Dordogne). enhanced by a magnificent Greekstyle frame, whose sculpted elements evoke the sitter’s diverse responsibilities: agriculture, stud farms, canals, and so on; a replica of the portrait hangs in the famous veterinary school at Maisons-Alfort.

Henri-Léonard Bertin (1720–92) was a friend of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. According to Michel Antoine, he was an open, intelligent, and disinterested individual. Born in Périgueux in 1720, he began his career as a lawyer in Bordeaux, was intendant of Roussillon in 1750, intendant of Lyon from 1754 to 1757, then lieutenant general of the Paris police until 1759. Louis XV then appointed him General Controller of Finance to replace Monsieur de Silhouette, a Sinophile like himself. He held this office until 1763, when he resigned. He had attempted to improve the kingdom’s financial situation and compensate for the costs of the Seven Year War, policies that incurred the wrath of the parlements. On December 14 1763, he was appointed Secretary of State, a post he held until May 1780. The ministry, which was specifically created for him as a fifth Secretary of State, had never before existed in this form during the Ancien Régime; his responsibilities encompassed numerous sectors and domains: the porcelain manufactories, stud farms, veterinary schools, agriculture, mines, coaches, carriages, mail couriers, canals, navigation, manufacturers of painted canvas, the Compagnie des Indes (French East India Company), and correspondence with China. Bertin belonged to a group of physiocrats who, like himself, were passionate about the role of agronomy, and anything that came from China. However, in his attempts to accomplish his missions, he encountered many difficulties with the General Control of Finance, and he was obliged to tender his resignation on May 30 1780.

He took his role as patron of the Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory very seriously. Fascinated by Chinese porcelain, he went to great lengths to ensure that Sèvres developed the Chinese method for the production of hard-paste porcelain, composed of kaolin, a substance first identified in the 1730s by the chemist Réaumur (1683–1757). Consequently, he encouraged the exploration of kaolin deposits in Limousin.

He also sustained a lengthy correspondence with the Comte de Vergennes, the ambassador to Sweden 24

at the time, to ensure that Sèvres would be supplied with Swedish cobalt, which was thought to be of superior quality. As the king’s representative at Sèvres, he received gifts from the establishment practically on an annual basis from 1763 onwards. References to these gifts are attested for the last time in 1782. The presents received over these years amounted in value to around 1,200 livres. At the same time, Bertin was also one of the establishment’s regular customers, and his first acquisitions appear to have begun in August 1762.

In December 1764, he acquired seven vases, ten items of sculpture, and two pièces de toilette ‘to send to China,’ for the sum of 4,560 livres. These were pieces from Sèvres that Bertin wished to entrust to two Chinese missionaries, Ko and Yang, whom he had taken under his protection, for presentation to Emperor Qianlong. The missionaries set off for China on February 1 1765 and arrived at the Court of Peking on February 2 1767. In 1779, Bertin bought more pieces from Sèvres and sent five biscuit porcelain figures to China; these represented Saint Anthony, Saint Claire, Saint Theresa, Saint Clotilde, and Saint Louis, and the ensemble cost 432 livres.

In 1765, Bertin entered into regular correspondence with the French Jesuits in Peking, the records of which are now held in the library of the Institut de France.

Among Bertin’s correspondents were the aforementioned Fathers Ko and Yang, Fathers Cibot and Amiot, and Father Panzi. Bertin published this correspondence in the Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages, etc. des Chinois, par les missionnaires de Pékin (Memoirs concerning the History, Sciences, Arts, Manners, Customs, &c. of the Chinese. By the Missionaries of Pekin.), the first volume of which was published in 1776. This correspondence attests to the importance that Bertin attached to relations with China in the second half of the eighteenth century. It also reveals his desire to discover more about Chinese resources and know-how in many fields in order to contribute to the development of the economy and scientific knowledge in France.

He specifically asked the French Jesuits to send him information about agriculture, commerce, and the fabrication of Chinese porcelain and silks.

Bertin assembled significant Far-Eastern collections in his Parisian mansion, located at the intersection of the Boulevards and the Rue Neuve-des-Capucines, and in his property at Chatou, which housed an important library comprising many Chinese works, many of which had been sent by Father Amiot; and he collected naturalia and Chinese objets d’art in his cabinet, which was open to visitors. In 1791, he emigrated to Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) and died in Spa in 1792. His cabinet and correspondence were confiscated and sold in 1792. His library is now in the French national library.

M.-L. R.

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MODEL OF THE COMTE DE PROVENCE, A VESSEL OWNED BY THE FRENCH EAST INDIA COMPANY

This 1:48 scale model of the Comte de Provence, a 1,490-tonne vessel, was based on the ship’s construction plans. The vessel measured Wood, canvas, and cord 1977 168 pieds long (54.6 meters) and H: 135 cm; L: 160 cm; W: 60 cm 43 pieds wide (14 meters). It sailed Scale: 1:48; volume: 1.296 between 1756 and 1764.

Musée de la Compagnie des Indes, Lorient In the eighteenth century, the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de la Ville de Lorient Inventory no. ML 132 vessels of the French East India Company, which were generally constructed at Lorient after 1735, weighed 600 tonnes for those that sailed to Bengal, 700 to 900 tonnes for those that sailed towards the coasts of Coromandel and Canton (most of the vessels), and 1,000 to 1,200 tonnes for those that took supplies to the islands of France and Bourbon (now the islands of Mauritius and Réunion).

The Compagnie fleet comprised forty-five vessels between 1725 and 1741, thirty-five between 1742 and 1752, and forty after 1753, and eventually the number stabilized after 1763 at twenty-five vessels. A ship generally lasted for ten to fifteen years.

As merchandise was prioritized, the hulls had to be solidly constructed to avoid any infiltration of seawater that might damage the cargo. The thirty-two or forty-eight canons, which were fixed on two decks, were dissuasive for pirates but ineffective against the battery of a warship. Between ninety-four and one hundred and thirty-six men, who were mainly from Brittany, formed the crew of a 600-tonne vessel—an average of twenty men per 100 tonnes.

To take advantage of better sailing conditions, the ships would set off for China between November and February, and between December and March

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for the Indies, in order to profit from the monsoon winds in the Indian Ocean. The vessels then sailed towards Madeira and the Canaries, the Cape Verde Islands, and along the coasts of Brazil in order to avoid the dangerous Gulf of Guinea, with its variable winds and calm spells. After stopping at Rio de Janeiro or St Catherine’s Island, the vessels headed in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope, where it was also possible to stop. In the Indian Ocean, the south-west monsoon blows from April to October and drove the ships towards the Indies, stopping sometimes at the islands of France and Bourbon, in May. The ships then sailed around the Seychelles and around the south coast of Ceylon, and finally reached Pondicherry or Chandernagor. Near China, the shallow waters of the Sunda Strait or that of Malacca constituted a potential danger. The ships then headed directly to Canton, where there was a chance of collision because of the sandbanks and, above all, typhoons, as the season occurred between July and October, when the vessels reached their destination.

After four months moored in a harbor, at Chandernagor or Canton, the return voyage was commenced between December and January to benefit from the Northern Monsoon, and to ensure the Cape of Good Hope would be passed before the beginning of June. Then, the vessels were driven by the south-east trade winds, sailed up the African coasts, put into port at the island of Saint Helena or Ascension, and sailed round the west of the Azores. They would reach Lorient after April and September, after a sixteen to twenty-two month voyage, two-thirds of which was spent at sea, with an average mortality rate of 8.4 per cent.

S. C.

BRISÉ FAN

This fan, which was imported from China at the end of the eighteenth century, is made from pierced ivory. The twentyfour sticks are held together by a ribbon of ivory-colored silk that passes through holes in the top. This example, which is called ‘au cartel d’attente’, could be painted on its central cartouche, here in the form of a shield, according to the wishes of the buyer.

The invention of fans in China is attributed to Emperor Wu Wang, the founder of the Zhou dynasty in the eleventh century BCE. The first fans were made of feathers or leaves and were designed to protect the holder from the effects of the sun and dust.

The Chinese are also credited with the invention

Pierced ivory and silk China c.1780–90 18 x 32 cm Musée de la Compagnie des Indes, Lorient Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de la Ville de Lorient Inventory no. 2011.4.2

of brisé fans, composed of thin flexible ivory blades, which were held together by a thread or ribbon.

Ivory fans were used in the palaces and were considered to be symbols of high social status.

In the eighteenth century, fans were among the goods imported by the various European companies from the Cantonese trading centres. They were made from paper, tortoiseshell, or bamboo and the most luxurious examples were made from ivory. They could also be acquired from Parisian marchands-merciers. On December 9 1752, the famous Lazare Duvaux sold the Marquise de Pompadour a box of twelve fans from Nanking. They may have been used during a feast held in honor of Louis XV at the Château de Bellevue. The royal mistress’s residence housed a small theater decorated in the Chinese manner that was inaugurated in January 1751.

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PANEL OF SILK SATIN GOUACHÉ, CALLED ‘PÉKIN’ Canton, China Eighteenth century 109 x 70 cm Musée de la Compagnie des Indes, Lorient Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de la Ville de Lorient Inventory no. 2011.17.1.6

The Book of Odes, by Confucius, recounts how (c.2700 BCE) the Chinese princess Si Ling Chi discovered the secret of silk while drinking tea at the foot of a mulberry tree. A cocoon fell in her cup, and she unwound an extraordinarily soft thread out of the little grey ball. The Chinese were the first to master the secrets of breeding the bombyx mori silkworm, which feeds only on mulberry leaves, and to transform its cocoon into a strand several hundred meters long. They managed to keep this secret for three thousand years and turned the fabrication of silk into a highly profitable trade. This silk satin panel, which is embellished with colors on a cream background, features alternating garlands of flowers and interlaced carnations, motifs of rosebuds and tied bouquets. It was made and painted in China in the eighteenth century. The taste for precious silks imported from China lasted throughout the eighteenth century, and they were particularly appreciated in the royal residences. In 1741, at Choisy, where Louis XV would retire to escape from the constraints of the court, an item of furniture that was covered in ‘Chinese white satin, with figures, flowers, and animals embroidered in silk’ was delivered to the room of Mademoiselle Louise-Anne de BourbonCondé (1695–1758). Forty years later, at Saint Cloud, Marie-Antoinette had the walls of her room decorated with ‘Pekin’ silk featuring a white background painted with Chinese figures, which was probably produced in France in the Chinese manner. This Chinese taste lasted until the end of Louis XVI’s reign, when ‘a Pekin silk with a white background with a motif of trees, flowers, birds from the Indies and a terrace…’ was selected to furnish the Games Room at Compiègne, and was A.-C. S. delivered in 1790.

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THREE STRIPS OF WALLPAPER Paper glued on canvas, and gouache Canton region, China End of the eighteenth century Inventory no. OAR 494 A : 327.2 x 93.1 cm Inventory no. OAR 494 B : 327 x 93.5 cm Inventory no. OAR 494 E : 327 x 187 cm Provenance: consigned by the Office des Biens Privés Département des Objets d’Art, Musée du Louvre, Paris Inventory nos. OAR 494 A, B, and E

The three panels of wallpaper, part of a set of six, evoke various aspects relating to the manufacture, transportation, and sale of porcelain ware. Each panel features several juxtaposed scenes, which stand out—without the use of perspective— against a mountainous landscape background.

The largest panel depicts precise details, in particular a merchant dealing with a customer in his shop and calculating the price of a piece of porcelain on his abacus, and the transportation of porcelain wares in a junk. The highly narrative decoration on these wallpaper strips attests to their evolution in the second half of the eighteenth century and, in particular, the decline (c.1750) in the use of decorative motifs of flowers, vases, and birds; these were replaced by scenes of everyday life, set in the Chinese countryside, and depicted the fabrication of porcelain and silk, rice cultivation, and the harvesting of tea leaves. The great popularity of Chinese wallpaper on the Parisian market led to the development of French fabrication methods that imitated the Chinese products; this was encouraged by Thierry de Ville d’Avray, the new Intendant du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, from 1784 onwards.

M.-L. R.

Strip of wallpaper representing the trade in porcelain (inv. OAR 494 E).

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CHINESE HUNTING AND CHINESE FISHING

In 1742, François Boucher was commissioned to supply the François Boucher (1703–70) Beauvais Manufactory with eight sketches for cartoons for a new set Two sketches for the Beauvais Manufactory Oil on canvas of Chinese tapestries; they were 1742 intended to replace the cartoons of Chinese Hunt: 40.5 cm x 47.0 cm the First Chinese Tapestry at Beauvais, Chinese Fishing: 41.5 cm x 56.0 cm which had been used a great deal Provenance: acquired by Pierre-Jacques-Onézime Bergeret de Grancourt; acquired in 1786 by Pierre-Adrien Pâris; and were now worn. The eight donated to Besançon Municipal Library in 1819. sketches were presented by the artTransferred to the Musée de Besançon in 1842. ist at the Salon of 1742. The direcThe Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie, Besançon. tors of the Beauvais Manufactory On permanent loan from the Municipal Library, nos. D.843.1.4 and D.843.1.5 eventually selected only six of the sketches to be used as tapestry cartoons: The Chinese Meal, Chinese Dance, The Chinese Fair, Chinese Fishing, Chinese 30

Hunting, and The Chinese Garden. The scale cartoons were executed by Jean-Joseph Dumons (1687–1779).

At the time, Jean-Baptiste Oudry and Nicolas Besnier were joint directors of the Beauvais Manufactory (since 1734), and they continued until 1753, when André-Charlemagne Charron succeeded them as director. Ten series, each comprising six pieces, were woven between 1743 and 1775, and almost fifty of these pieces have been identified to date. In 1770, Dumons’s cartoons were showing clear signs of wear and he was asked to make copies of them.

These sketches attest to the prodigious influence of China in François Boucher’s career, an influence evident in the drawings engraved by his disciples, which had a great impact on the decorative arts, in

particular at the Vincennes-Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory, where a significant portion of the Chinese themes painted between 1750 and 1770 were inspired by his oeuvre. Boucher’s passion for the Chinese decorative repertoire commenced very early in his career when he was entrusted, circa 1730, to engrave the decorations painted twenty years earlier

by Watteau at the Château de la Muette. In 1740, he drew the famous trade card At the Sign of the Pagoda for the boutique of the art dealer Gersaint, which was located on the Notre-Dame Bridge. In this drawing, which was engraved by the Comte de Caylus, Boucher cheerfully combined obese Chinese men or magots and Chinese furniture, seashells, and Chinese lacquers and porcelain, which he himself collected.

It appears that the China depicted by Boucher in the sketches held in Besançon was not as fantastical as it was believed for many years. Certain authors have identified the direct influence of two men who had traveled to the Far East, whose accounts were illustrated with engravings: Johan Nieuhof ’s work, An Embassy from the East India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperor of China, first published in Leyden in 1665 (English edition, London, 1669); and Arnoldus Montanus’s book, published in Amsterdam in 1680 in French, Les Ambassades… vers les empereurs du Japon (translated into English in 1670 as the Memorable Embassies of the Dutch to the Emperors of Japan).

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THE CHINESE CABINET

Marie Leszczynska’s first cabinet chinois in Versailles, which was lined with ‘India paper’ and installed in 1747, was replaced by a second, much more spectacular cabinet in 1761.

As Madame Campan wrote, Marie Leszczynska ‘delighted in Provenance: paintings placed in the Cabinet de la Reine in 1761.

Bequeathed by testament in 1768 to Anne-Claude-Louise the art of painting, and imagined d’Arpajon (1729–94), Comtesse de Noailles; placed in the Hôtel she herself could draw and paint de Noailles-Mouchy in rue Saint-Dominique in Paris, in a pavilion […]. She undertook to paint four built in the garden. Installed in the Château de Mouchy-le-Châtel large Chinese paintings, with as part of restoration work carried out between 1856 and 1861; removed from the château in 1961. Château de Mouchy collection, which she wished to ornament Mouchy-le-Châtel. her private drawing-room, which was richly furnished with rare porcelain and the finest marbles.’ The accounts show that the queen was assisted by artists appointed as peintres du Cabinet du roi, probably under the direction of Étienne Jeaurat, keeper of the King’s pictures; Madame Campan ensured that they played a major role in the project.

Indeed, on November 9 1762, the peintres du Cabinet du roi—La Roche, Frédou, Prévost, and Coqueret— received a payment of ‘2,000 livres for eight paintings representing various Chinese subjects […] placed in the Queen’s Cabinet at the Château de Versailles in June 1761.’ A second memoir, published by Xavier Salmon, provides precise information about the subjects of the paintings and has enabled the identification of the five remaining works.

Bequeathed in 1768 to her lady of honor, the Comtesse de Noailles, the paintings were installed in a pavilion in Paris that had been constructed specifically to house the queen’s legacy; the cabinet’s woodwork and mirrors were also transferred to the pavilion. The paintings were probably converted to rectangular format when they were transferred to the Château de Mouchy in the nineteenth century; the disappearance of two overdoors, Wild Animal Hunt and People Cultivating Tea and a painting from above the fireplace, Landscape with Men Cultivating the Land also probably occurred at this time.

The identification of the titles of the eight paintings provides information about their significance. As often with decorative ensembles, the compositions were not purely imaginary—they were derived from a combination of different sources, and the queen no doubt played a major role in collating them. The identified overdoor, entitled Fair in the Town of Nankin in the memoir, is an exact reproduction of a vignette, which was engraved by Jacob De Meurs and used to illustrate Johan Nieuhof’s An Embassy from the East India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperor of China (English edition, London, 1669); the queen must have found her inspiration in Leyde’s original 1665 edition, published in French, and in the transcription integrated by the Abbot Prévost in the Marie Leszczynska (1703–68), in collaboration with Henri-Philippe-Bon Coqueret, active in Versailles between 1761 and 1776, Jean-Martial Frédou (1710–95), Jean-Philippe de La Roche, active in Versailles in the 1750s, and Prévost, active in Versailles between 1740 and 1760, under the direction of Étienne Jeaurat (1699–1789)

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General History of Voyages, published in Paris in 1748. It is very likely that the queen was impressed by the picturesque nature of the famous Ragged Rocks in this work; they also appear in another vignette—the artificial rocks of ‘Pekkinsa,’ ‘which could be considered one of the Wonders of the World’ and which she skillfully integrated into the background of the scene in Traders Preparing Bundles of Tea Leaves, and a Jesuit Conversing with a Mandarin. Although old, this iconography had lost none of its relevance. The combination of different iconographic sources is evident in the treatment of the buildings, which combines frontal views from European architectural treatises with Chinese bird’s-eye views. Hence, the elegant pavilions in the two large compositions were borrowed from William Chambers; a voyage to Canton supplied the materials for his Designs of Chinese Buildings, which the British architect had just published in London in 1757. Marie Leszczynska must have had a copy of this book in her library; the accuracy of the illustrations and the vivid commentaries made it an essential guide for understanding Chinese architecture. The pavilion in which a game of mahjong is taking place is an almost exact copy of the ‘building […] that stood in the middle of a small lake in a garden at Canton.’ The pavilion in the other main panel appears to be a simplified—though somewhat awkward—square version of an octagonal pavilion that was also published by Chambers. Two figures—the woman holding a basket and the man carrying two bales suspended by a rope at each end of a long pole balanced over his shoulder—, which can be seen next to each other in the first composition, were also inspired by a plate by the British architect, A Servant and A Peasant. But their presence does not clarify the meaning of the scenes whose settings are depicted. There must be another Chinese source that links the different scenes together, because the activities depicted on the four panels are linked to the cultivation of tea: the unloading of bales of leaves under the gaze of ‘several Chinese men who are smoking and drinking tea’; the withering of tea leaves by spreading them out by hand, summed up as ‘the method for making tea’; and the sealing of tea chests for export, with mahjong players in the background. The fourth scene, described as ‘a Chinese man bowing before a lord,’ in fact depicts two visiting senior officials, revealing a more administrative side to this culture. And, lastly, an overdoor that is now lost must surely have represented ‘country folk involved in the cultivation of tea.’ The queen and her painters were inspired by a Chinese book of watercolors enhanced with gouache, which describes the stages in the cultivation, harvesting, and exportation of tea in the mid-eighteenth century; there is a fine copy of this B. R. book in the French national library.

Traders Preparing Bundles of Tea Leaves, and a Jesuit Conversing with a Mandarin Oil on canvas (originally in scroll form) 1761 279.1 x 167.5 cm

The Method for Making Tea Oil on canvas (originally in scroll form, probably reduced in size on the right and left) 1761 279.1 x 97.5 cm 33

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GEOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, CHRONOLOGICAL, POLITICAL, AND PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE EMPIRE OF CHINA AND CHINESE TARTARY Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674–1743) Paris, Nicolas-Léger Moutard, 1770, 4 volumes Binding in red morocco leather bearing the coat of arms of Marie-Joséphine-Louise de Savoie, Comtesse de Provence (1753–1810), triple fillet border, vols. I, III and IV Provenance: formerly in the collection of the Comtesse de Provence; confiscated during the Revolution; formerly in the collection of the Bibliothèque de l’École Centrale in Seine-et-Oise. Bibliothèque Municipale de Versailles since 1801: Bibliothèque Municipale de Versailles, Versailles, reserve collection, in-fol I 3-6 f.

The first edition of this important work, bringing together all the available information on China, which Voltaire described as ‘the most comprehensive and best description of the empire of China in the world,’ dates from 1735. Translated into English, German, and Russian, it was republished in 1770. When the library of the Comtesse de Provence was created, it contained the most recent edition, together with several works on China and the geography and history of Europe and distant lands, attesting to the royal family’s curiosity and desire for knowledge. É. M. 35

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ALBUM DEPICTING PORCELAIN MANUFACTURING AND TRADE

This painting represents the porcelain shop of a Chinese Painting on silk merchant, who is seated behind China his counter facing Chinese cusEighteenth century tomers. It belongs to a very fine 40 x 37 cm Provenance: acquired from the Libraire Merlin, 1805 (Floreal album of fifty paintings on silk, Year XIII); Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, which were executed in China Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Oe 104 pet. fol., and depict Chinese porcelain reserve collection. Inventory no. 4644. manufacturing and trade.

The paintings have each been mounted on tabs (narrow strips of paper), but were initially mounted consecutively back-to-back, as in eighteenthcentury Chinese albums. The current book cover, which was produced in Europe, is a multicolored silk brocade with motifs of dragons, butterflies, peonies, and floral branches on a yellow background, and the blank leaves are decorated with a silk that is reminiscent of the silk used in imperial books. These silk fabrics were probably taken from such works, which, in the Chinese manner, were originally protected by a silk cover lined with paper and a rigid outer cover. The album, which entered the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 1805, was acquired from the Libraire Merlin; the acquisition included three other works, one of which was a book on tea, which is assembled in a similar way and bears the watermark of the Société de Jésus.

This work seems to be Jesuit in origin and does not originate from the network of European traders who acquired goods at Canton and imported 36

many albums, which were often painted on paper and depicted the trades and occupations of the Chinese. The work’s pictorial effectiveness and the quality of the pigments applied to fine silk fabrics attest to the perfect technical mastery of an experienced painter who probably copied or was inspired by contemporary models, which may have been scrolls in the imperial court. The work, which is based on the model of a famous album on rice cultivation and silk culture commissioned

by Emperor Kangxi in 1696, presents, as does the latter, all the stages in the manufacturing of a product, which in this case is porcelain. Another plate depicts a workshop, above which is a banner bearing the name of the Imperial Household Department, the Neiwufu, which, in particular, managed the famous manufactory of Jingdezhen.

This set of images also provides invaluable information on the way in which Europeans acquired their goods in the trading centers at Canton.

Owing to a lack of evidence, it has not been possible to determine for whom this album was produced. It was probably sent to France because of its scientific interest. In fact, letters in ink integrated into the images point to the existence of captions that are now missing. The minister Bertin, who is known to have been interested in porcelain and trade with China, possessed a similar album that had been sent to him by the N. M. and A.-C. S. Jesuit Father Amiot.

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HALF-FORMAT PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XVI Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725–1803) Oil on canvas c.1775 80 x 62 cm Provenance: formerly in the royal collection; mentioned in the inventory of the Louvre in 1852.

Deposited at Versailles in 1965, Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles; on permanent loan from the Musée du Louvre.

Inventory no. MV 3966

This half-format portrait was executed at the same time as the full-length portrait of the young king in coronation robes. Louis XVI is wearing the sash and breast star of the Order of the Holy Ghost, and the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

Louis XVI, who possessed in his library a copy of the very famous work by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde, Geographical, Historical, Chronological, Political, and Physical Description of the Empire of China and Chinese Tartary, published in Paris in 1735, retained in his service the Sinophile minister Henri-Léonard Bertin, for whom Louis XV had created a special ministry. Bertin stimulated Louis XVI’s interest in China, and encouraged him to acquire the plaque representing Emperor Qianlong, which was painted in 1776 at Sèvres by Asselin. The plaque was placed in one of the most emblematic places in the King’s Interior Apartments,, the Corner Cabinet. Bertin also encouraged Louis XVI to take an interest in the immense project he had undertaken since 1776: the publication of the Memoirs concerning the History, Sciences, Arts, Manners, Customs, &c. of the Chinese. By the Missionaries of Peking, compiled by French Jesuit missionaries in China, such as Father Amiot, one of the minister’s main correspondents.

As was the case with his predecessors, the king’s taste for Chinese works was particularly evident in his Interior Apartments. He had the chairs in the library covered in painted pekin silk; the library was designed in 1774 by Gabriel and installed in Louis XV’s Salon des Jeux. In 1774, he also acquired a coffee set with Chinese decoration from the Sèvres Royal Manufactory; it was painted by Lécot and is included in the exhibition. The following year, he bought another particularly lavish coffee set, also painted by Lécot, which is now in Saint Petersburg. In 1780, Louis XVI extended his collection of Sèvres decorative ware painted in the Chinese manner, by acquiring a pair of ‘garden’ vases, decorated with Chinese birds and 38

landscapes by Chappuis and Vincent, and placing them in Louis XIV’s Chamber.

The king decorated his Interior Apartments with certain plates from The Battles of the Emperor of China, whose engraving under the direction of Cochin had, at the time, been a veritable affair of state.

Christian Baulez has shown that six of the engravings were mentioned in the inventory drawn up in 1791 in the King’s Interior Apartments, in particular in the Games Room.

M.-L. R.

PLAQUE REPRESENTING THE EMPEROR OF CHINA Charles-Éloi Asselin (1743–1804) Hard-paste porcelain with a gilt frame Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory c.1776 Factory mark of two interlaced Ls; no date letter; mark of the painter, active in the Manufactory between 1765 and 1800: A 23.7 x 17.4 cm Provenance: formerly in the Louis XVI collection at Versailles; Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon. Inventory no. RF 35760.

This painting on porcelain is a head and shoulders representation of Emperor Qianlong (1711–99), who is wearing a fur hat, surmounted by a large round pearl. The portrait is surrounded by a painted gold border, enhanced with Chinese motifs, and, in the lower part of the frame, a fantastical oriental bird. Asselin executed this portrait after a watercolor drawing by Father Giuseppe Panzi, a Jesuit at the imperial court of Peking; the drawing represents Emperor Qianlong and belonged to Henri-Léonard Bertin, minister and secretary of state under Louis XVI. Father Panzi, who was born in 1734 in Italy, had arrived in China in 1771 and in Peking in 1773. He succeeded Giuseppe Castiglione as Painter to the Emperor of China at the imperial palace. Panzi’s drawing, now lost, was made available by Bertin to artists at the Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory. It is known through the engraving by Martinet, used to illustrate the frontispiece in the first volume of Memoirs concerning the History, Sciences, Arts, Manners, Customs, &c. of the Chinese, which was first published in 1776, under the patronage of the minister. Asselin, who was also an amateur gilder, is certainly the author of the particularly refined gilt frame that surrounds the portrait of Qianlong.

This plaque, which is listed as one of the twentytwo paintings on porcelain in the inventory drawn up in Louis XVI’s Interior Apartments at Versailles in 1791, was acquired by the king in 1776: ‘Sold to the King in 1776: 1 painting of the Emperor of China, 480 [livres]’. It is mentioned again in 1791 in the Corner Cabinet: ‘A painting on porcelain representing a Turk, the Emperor of China, in a carved wooden gilt frame, 14 inches by 12 inches, 600 [livres].’ The King bought a second plaque for the same price in 1779 for Bertin.

It appears in the Manufactory’s sales register: ‘1 painting of the Emperor of China charged to the King’s account by order of M. Bertin.’ The painting’s whereabouts are currently unknown. On October 17 1785, the former minister personally acquired a third plaque representing the Emperor of China for the much lower price of 192 livres: ‘1 painting, the Emperor of China.’ This plaque, which is also now lost, may have been smaller and of inferior quality.

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VASE

This garden vase, richly mounted in gilt bronze in a distinctive Greek style, was acquired at the Duc d’Aumont’s posthumous sale; the art dealer Paillet bought it for the king for the sum of 1,699 livres 19 sols. It is described in lot 161 of the catalogue compiled by the auctioneer Julliot: ‘A large barrel-shaped vase, with celestial blue bouquets on a purple ground on the upper and lower extremities of the body, in the center of which is a wide band, also in celestial blue, decorated with roses and branches delicately tinted with purple; the vase has a decorative neck and on each side there is an S-shaped scroll-foliage handle, with a pronounced lion’s head with a ring in its mouth; it has a “cul-delampe” base, a carved pedestal, and a plinth in gilt bronze; it sits on a base whose underside is covered in prime verte; height of vase with decorations: 21 inches.

This piece is unique because of the variety of the colors, and this is the only one that we have seen in this style and form.’ The gilt-bronze scroll-foliage handles, which start on the upper part of the body, terminate in lion muzzles, each with a ring in their mouth. When the vases were cleaned in preparation

Porcelain, China, Kangxi period (1662–1722); gilt-bronze mounts, Paris, c.1770 55 x 42 cm Provenance: formerly in the collection of the Duc d’Aumont.

Acquired by Paillet for Louis XVI at the Aumont Sale in 1782, for the Museum; mentioned in the inventory of the Grand Trianon in 1834 in the first drawing-room of the Trianon-sous-Bois wing (inventory no. GT 683); Grand Trianon in 1839 in the third drawing-room in the Appartement du Roi (inventory no. GT 1835); Grand Trianon in 1894 in the drawing-room in the Appartement de la Reine des Belges (inventory no. T 423C). Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles. Inventory no. T 423C .

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for the exhibition, we discovered porcelain lion heads in half relief under the gilt-bronze lion muzzles. The vase rests on a circular pedestal in gilt bronze, supported by a gilt-bronze plinth.

Louis-Marie-Augustin d’Aumont (1709–82), who became the fifth Duc d’Aumont and pair de France on the death of his father in 1723, was premier gentilhomme ordinaire de la Chambre until his death in April 1782. He was one of the most prolific art collectors of his time. Most of what he collected was kept in his hôtel in the Place Louis-XV. He was a great connoisseur of hardstones and antique marbles, lacquers from the Far East, and porcelain wares from China and Japan.

The posthumous sale of his collections, which took place in December 1782, was a major event in Paris. The exhibition of the works had begun on November 12 and had attracted the most expert connoisseurs of the time. The sale commenced on December 12 and was conducted

by Julliot fils and Paillet. At the sale Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette acquired many pieces of porcelain from China and Japan through the art dealers Julliot, Paillet, and Légère. Most of the works were acquired for the museum that the king wished to create in the Palais du Louvre, which had not been inhabited by the kings of France for several decades.

M.-L. R.

C H I N A AT V E R S A I L L E S : A R T A N D D I P L O M AC Y I N T H E E I G H T E E N T H C E N T U RY

BREAKFAST SERVICE WITH ‘PARIS’ TRAY AND CHINESE DECORATIONS

Magnificently designed and painted by Lécot, the large Louis-François Lécot, oblong tray in this breakfast active 1763–65 and 1772–1802 service owes its name to the Hard-paste porcelain répareur Jacques-François Paris Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory (1735–97). In the eighteenth 1775 century, this type of tray was Mark of the Manufactory in red and violet with two intertwined often accompanied, as it is here, Ls beneath a crown; date letter X for 1775; L for L.-F. Lécot on the underside of all the pieces; tray signed Lécot by a teapot (théière ‘Calabre’), a Tray, W: 47.2 cm tripod milk-pot, a sugar-basin Teapot, H: 10.5 cm (pot à sucre ‘Bouret’), and four Milk-pot, H: 10.1 cm cups (gobelets litrons) and saucers.

Sugar-basin (bowl), H: 8.8 cm Cups and saucers: H: 5.8 cm; D: 12.3 cm Only two cups and saucers are Provenance: formerly in the collection of Louis XVI at Versailles; now in the Hermitage Museum. alienated during the Revolution; formerly in the collection One cup and saucer is in the of the Comtes Chouvaloff. Entered the Hermitage Nationalmuseum of Stockholm.

Museum collections in 1925. National Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. Inventory no. ZF 14985-14990.

The latest publications identify this ensemble as one of the two breakfast services acquired by Louis XVI for 720 livres in 1775, and which were later listed in the inventories of the Interior Dining Room of the King’s Apartment in the Château de Versailles during the Revolution.

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The gilding, which has been applied in a very fluid manner and is enhanced by a rich palette of colors, forms the basis of the lavish Chinese decorative repertoire, which, on the tray and saucers, is bordered with a frieze of lilac cartouches.

The service’s extremely clever iconography, featuring the cultivation of rice, is an exact copy of the illustrations commissioned by the emperor of China. Qianlong (1711–99) had in fact tasked scholars with collecting all important works in every subject and compiling them into a single work that was then sent to the regional officials.

Some of the many recommendations were aimed at improving agricultural techniques, and therefore the harvests. Henri-Léonard Bertin (1720– 92) probably transmitted these remarkable images to the Sèvres Royal Manufactory. Around 1786, Father Amiot sent him a new, more comprehensive copy called Qinding shoushi tongkao.

In 1776, several services of this type were delivered to members of the royal family; they cost around 1,200 livres, but no other service has an iconography as well copied as this one.

V. B.

PAIR OF EWERS IN CHINESE PORCELAIN WITH AUBERGINE GLAZE AND GILTBRONZE MOUNTS

The quality and originality of the decorations in gilt bronze are immediately evident when Mounting attributed to Pierre Gouthière one views this imposing pair of (1732–1813) ewers in Chinese porcelain with Porcelain with aubergine glaze, Jingdezhen, China, Kangxi period aubergine glaze from the Kangxi (1662–1722); gilt-bronze mounts, Paris, c.1785 period (1662–1722), known as Numbers stamped or incised under the mounting: SC 413, 53, SC 677 duomu ewers.

48.5 x 28 cm Marie-Antoinette had chosen Provenance: formerly in the collection of Marie-Antoinette at Versailles (until 1789); consigned to the art dealer Daguerre (October 1789 to present these rare ewers in to 1793); Palais de Saint-Cloud in 1801; removed on June 28 1855; her boudoir at the Château de offered by Napoleon III to the Duc de Morny (1811–65); Versailles, known as the Cabinet formerly in the collection of the Duchesse de Sesto (1838–96); of the Meridian, because this sold by auctioneers Bailly and Duchesne, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, rooms 9-10, May 9-10 1898, lot 10; formerly in the collection of Sir Julius is where she collected the finest Wernher (1850–1912) at Bath House, inherited from Luton Hoo luxury objects. The cabinet also Manor. Sold by the heirs at Christie’s in London, June 9 1994, lot 35. contained ‘Kakiemon’ porcelain, Private collection. including two octagonal basins mounted on tripods, together with a pair of ten-sided mortars placed on various trays with entwined serpent handles and small bronze chains, resting on lion’s feet and griotte marble plinths; and a wonderful jasper cup decorated with flowers and mounted and incised by Gouthière, which is now in the Wallace Collection in London. All the pieces in the Meridian were extremely rare on the market. A precise description of these ewers was written in 1793: ‘Two oblong vases of equal size, each with a ewer-shaped spout; old Japanese porcelain, violet in color; divided in the middle by bands ornamented in matt gilt bronze, with scrolling S-shaped handles on one of the sides where there are small seated

satyrs: these handles rest on ram’s heads with vine branches in their mouths. The spouts are ornamented with swan heads [sic, singe, or ‘monkey’, in the French text instead of cygne]; on the front of each vase is a bacchant’s head and similar ornamentation; the plinth is also ornamented with bronzes, with four lion’s claw feet and arabesque ornamentation. The ensemble is very finely executed. Total height: 21½ inches [58.20 cm].’ There were very few of these Chinese porcelain duomu pieces in the collections of amateurs in the Age of Enlightenment.

Two similar ewers, ornamented instead with dragon-shaped handles, successively formed part of the collections in the cabinets of Gaignat and the Duc d’Aumont. Although it was once believed that the ewers acquired at the Duc d’Aumont’s Sale for the museum on the king’s orders were in the possession of Marie-Antoinette, this hypothesis must now be rejected, because they seem to have been intact when they were consigned to the Ministry of Finance in Year V (1796–97), after which there is no further trace of them.

The very intense colored ground of these porcelain pieces is enhanced by the refined mounts (probably executed by Pierre Gouthière), which are composed of arabesques, flowers, pearls, trophies, bacchant heads, and protomes of rams supporting scrolling S-shaped handles that once served as supports for small satyrs. All these elements that were dear to Marie-Antoinette appear in the decorations in Versailles, Saint-Cloud, and the Trianon.

V. B. 43

C H I N A AT V E R S A I L L E S : A R T A N D D I P L O M AC Y I N T H E E I G H T E E N T H C E N T U RY

GARNITURE OF THREE ‘EGG’ VASES DECORATED WITH CHINOISERIE SCENES

The Royal Manufactory’s sales registry lists ‘a garniture of three Chinese vases’, sold for Louis-François Lécot, active 1763–65 and 3,000 livres, at the end of a list 1772–1802 of ‘items sold to the queen durMounts attributed to Jean-Claude-Thomas ing the years 1774, 1775, and Chambellan Duplessis (1730–83) 1776’. Marie-Antoinette very Hard-paste porcelain, Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory, probably acquired these vases 1775–76; incised and gilded bronze, Paris, c.1775–76 at the end of December 1776.

Mark of the Manufactory: two intertwined Ls beneath a crown; They appear in the inventory date letters X and Y for 1775 and 1776 on the pair of vases, X for 1775 on the central urn; signed in gold Lécot and L drawn up in spring 1794 of Central urn, H: 47 cm, W: 27 cm the furniture at the Château de The pair of vases, H: 37.5 cm, W: 22.5 cm Saint-Cloud, listed in a cupProvenance: formerly in the collection of Marie-Antoinette board in the Appartement de la at Versailles, and then at Saint-Cloud. Alienated during the Revolution, they remained in the possession of the same family Femme Capet: ‘2041 – A garuntil they were acquired by the Château de Versailles in 1983. niture of three Sèvres porcelain Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles vases with a white ground, decInventory no. V 52251-3 orated with chinoiserie scenes, and pierced necks ornamented with rings, cords, tassels, and incised copper handles gilded with gilt bronze, on square-shaped socles in gilded copper, valued at 700 livres.’ Louis XVI purchased SaintCloud for Marie-Antoinette in February 1785, so, prior to that date, this garniture was probably on display in the Queen’s Interior Cabinets at the Château de Versailles.

The bronzework is highly characteristic of Duplessis’s art, and, on one of the sides of the large vase the Chinese decorative repertoire, beautifully painted by Lécot, is a copy of a print published

by Jean-Pierre Houël (1735–1813), c.1745; it was used as the frontispiece for the Series of Chinese Figures after François Boucher. Jean Pillement’s work inspired two other cartels painted on these vases, in which can be seen figures from the Studies of Differents Chinese Figures and the Compilation of Several Chinese Children’s Games, engraved by PierreCharles Canot (1710–77).

One of the vases is signed Lécot instead of L, which was very unusual in the Sèvres Manufactory. The artist has accentuated the Asian characteristics of the figures, their dress, the landscapes, and flowers, by outlining all the contours in gold, in an attempt to imitate the motifs of Chinese silk fabrics. All the gilded surfaces, which have been finely worked in great detail, stand out harmoniously from the smooth hard-paste porcelain background.

The Comte de Provence possessed an identical garniture, acquired on December 24 1775.

V. B. 44

C H I N A AT V E R S A I L L E S : A R T A N D D I P L O M AC Y I N T H E E I G H T E E N T H C E N T U RY

VIEW OF THE CHINESE RING GAME

In 1774, several days after Louis XV’s death, his grandson Drawing in black chalk, watercolor, and gouache Louis XVI offered his young wife Extract of the Recueil des vues et plans du Petit Trianon à Versailles, the Trianon Estate, whose prinunder the direction of Richard Mique (1728–94), 1786. cipal attraction was the château, Binding in red ‘morroco leather’ built by Ange-Jacques Gabriel Provenance: in 1786, Queen Marie-Antoinette offered the compilation to her brother, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, for Madame de Pompadour, and governor of Lombardy. Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, completed after her death in 1768.

Modena, Italy, Est. 119.

The queen immediately decided to create an Anglo-Chinese garden to the north-east of the château; the fashion for such gardens had begun in France in the early 1770s and had become more widespread after the publication (from 1775 onwards) of the engravings in the Jardins anglo-chinois by Le Rouge and various texts by William Chambers. The decision to transform the Parc de Trianon was taken in 1776. Gabriel had retired, so the king employed an architect from Lorraine, Richard Mique, who had already worked for Queen Marie Leszczynska. In 1777, Richard Mique submitted plans for a new garden ‘with alternating areas of grassland and woods, and winding pathways leading to various edifices, which will be constructed progressively.’

In 1776, it was decided that a Chinese Ring Game should be constructed, in imitation of the Ring Game in the Chartres’ Folly, built in Paris

by Carmontelle where the Parc Monceau is now located. The Trianon Ring Game, represented in this painting by Châtelet, was a sort of merrygo-round whose seats were made up of peacocks and dragons and whose main mast was decorated with Chinese figures. The Ring Game was, rather curiously, built in close proximity to the château, without much consideration for this masterpiece of Greek-style architecture. The other buildings in the gardens were constructed in the years that followed. Mique found inspiration in the antique when he built the Temple of Love (1778), which was designed to house Bouchardon’s statue Cupid Carving a Bow from Hercules’ Club. Between 1779 and 1782, Mique built the Rocher and its waterfall, the Grotto, the Belvédère, the Salle de Comédie and, lastly, starting in 1783, the houses of the Hameau.

Several compilations of views and plans of the Trianon Estate were produced upon request of the queen in and after 1779, in particular for Gustave III of Sweden, the Emperor Joseph II, the Comte du Nord, the Princess of Asturias, and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. This compilation, offered to the queen’s brother during his visit to Versailles, in May 1786, appears to be the most lavish and comprehensive anthology produced. It provides very precise information about the Trianon Estate, shortly before the work was completed. It is comprised of twenty-six leaves, containing twenty-five Claude-Louis Châtelet (1753–95)

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architectural drawings by the draftsman Péchon, and seven views in watercolor, attributed to Châtelet, who was also the author of the views in the album offered to the Princess of Asturias.

M.-L. R.

AUTHORS

PHOTOGR APHIC CREDITS

The texts in this album originate from the exhibition catalogue, to which the following persons contributed:

BESANÇON

VINCENT BASTIEN (V. B.)

LORIENT

Doctor in History of Art

© musée de la Compagnie des Indes, musée d’art et d’histoire de la ville de Lorient/Y. Boëlle et G. Broudic: p. 26, 27, 28

JÉRÉMIE BENOIT (J. B.)

Chief Curator of the Trianon palaces, the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon CONSTANCE BIENAIMÉ (C. B.)

Art historian STÉPHANE CASTELLUCCIO (S. C.)

Responsible for research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, HDR (accreditation to supervise research), Centre André-Chastel, Paris HÉLÈNE DELALEX (H. D.)

Assistant curator in the Musée des Carrosses, Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon ANNICK HEITZMANN (A. H.)

© musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie/Pierre Guénat: p. 30, 31

PARIS

© Art Go, tel. 01 44 79 08 89: p. 33 (left and right) Coll. Bibliothèque nationale de France: p. 4, 37 © Bridgeman Art: p. 10, 17 © Christian Milet – © château de Versailles (dist. RMN-Grand Palais) / Jean-Marc Manaï – © RMN Grand-Palais (château de Versailles) / Thierry Ollivier – Graphic Design: des signes, le studio MuchirDesclouds: cover © Photo12 - Dagli Orti: p. 46-47 © RMN-Grand Palais/Martine Beck-Coppola: p. 9 © RMN-Grand Palais/Hervé Lewandowski: p. 21 © RMN-Grand Palais/Thierry Ollivier: p. 14, 19 © RMN-Grand Palais/Tony Querrec: p. 29 © RMN-Grand Palais/The Metropolitan Museum of Art: p. 11

Responsible for archaeological research, the Château de Versailles Research Center

PÉKIN

JÉRÔME DE LA GORCE (J. L.)

SAINT-PÉTERSBOURG

Director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre André-Chastel, Paris. Member of the scientific committee of the Château de Versailles Research Center

© musée national de l’Ermitage: p. 42

ISABELLE LANDRY-DERON (I. L.-D.)

Project engineer, the Centre for Documentation on Modern and Contemporary China, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris GÉRARD MABILLE (G. M.)

General Curator in the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon ÉLISABETH MAISONNIER (É. M.)

Curator of the Cabinet des Arts Graphiques, the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon

© musée de la Cité interdite: p. 6

VERSAILLES, CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES

© château de Versailles (dist. RMN-Grand Palais)/Christophe Fouin: p. 12-13, 23, 38, 41 © château de Versailles (dist. RMN-Grand Palais)/Jean-Marc Manaï:

p. 39 © RMN-Grand Palais (château de Versailles)/Gérard Blot: p. 8, 18 © RMN-Grand Palais (château de Versailles)/droits réservés: p. 15, 44-45 © Christophe Fouin: p. 7, 34-35, 35 (right) © mairie de Bordeaux/Lysiane Gauthier: p. 25 © all rights reserved: p. 43

PATRICK MICHEL (P. M.)

Professor of modern art history, Charles-de-Gaulle University – Lille III NATHALIE MONNET (N. M.)

Chief Curator of the Dunhuang Manuscripts and the Chinese Collections, Department of Manuscripts, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris MARIE-LAURE DE ROCHEBRUNE (M.-L. R.)

Curator in the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon BERTRAND RONDOT (B. R.)

Chief Curator of the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon ANNE-CÉCILE SOURISSEAU (A.-C. S.)

Art historian PASCAL TORRES (P. T.)

Curator of the Chalcography Collection and the Baron Edmond de Rothschild Collection, the Musée du Louvre, Paris

© Somogy éditions d’art, Paris, 2014 © Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles, 2014 THIS WORK HAS BEEN PRODUCED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF:

Somogy éditions d’art Coordination and editorial operations: Sarah Houssin-Dreyfuss, assisted by Astrid Bargeton, Céline Guichard, and Marie-Astrid Pourchet Graphic design: Nelly Riedel Translation from French into English: David and Jonathan Michaelson Editorial contribution: Natasha Edwards Iconography: Marthe Pilven Production: Michel Brousset, Béatrice Bourgerie, and Mélanie Le Gros The Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum, and National Estate of Versailles Publications Department: Jean-Vincent Bacquart, Marie Leimbacher, and Gaëlle Taxil Photographic library: Julie Benvenuti, assisted by Christophe Fouin ISBN 978-2-7572-0885-4 Legal deposit: May 2014 Photoengraving: Quat’Coul, Toulouse, France.

This work was printed by O.G.M. (Italy, European Union) in May 2014.