Neoclassicism

Martin Carlin, Secretary

Of the 1760's unfolds in Europe a reaction to the Rococo - who himself was opposed to the classical discipline - based on a return to antiquity. This neoclassicism, called style Louis XVI France, Adam England, Federal U.S., is preceded by a period sometimes called "transition" (1760-1770), which allows you to pass sinuous and bent rock forms cylindrical and cubic of neoclassicism. Splines legs sheath and amounts accentuate the vertical, while moldings and friezes mark the horizontal.

Lakes of China and Japan still adorn the precious furniture, the marquetry up game background, still lifes, trophies with bouquets of flowers, landscapes with architecture, plates porcelain with bright colors are sometimes over small tables or the fronts of cabinets, sculptures furniture, joinery and bronzes of cabinet furniture borrowed from the same directory antique rays-of-heart (following - shaped leaves heart alternating with spearheads), pearls, interlacing, streams, foliage, garlands of flowers or drapery. Apart from the roll-top desk, few furniture truly new, but a penchant for mechanisms that release shelves, drawers, desks or benches.

Giuseppe Maggiolini in Milan David Roentgen near Koblenz, Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite in London, Martin Carlin Jean-Henri Riesener - Cabinetmaker Crown from 1774 - Jean Francois Leleu - shaped like the previous two in the workshop Œben - and George Jacob Paris are the most brilliant interpreters of this style.

The XIX’s.

The Directoire style (1790-1804) makes a transition between styles Louis XVI and Empire, maintaining mild, especially for seats inspired klismos and simplifying the types of furniture.

Bonheur- du-jour

From Empire to the Restoration

The Empire style is characterized by large bare surfaces, generally stitched mahogany burl or flamed, of imposing proportions, enhanced by the presence of a pedestal. Sculpture, except for the legs of some tables or for specific sites, is rare (lion’s monopods, sphinxes, swans, caryatids sheath). The decor of the furniture is mostly made of gilded bronze, finely chiseled, arranged occasionally on the axis and the angles of furniture: stars, palm leaves, branches of laurel, thyrsi, lotus flowers, griffins, sphinxes, loves, renamed. Silks white and gold, light blue or crimson are used for curtains sleigh beds, while the ice, those of the psyche or the cabinet, reflecting the decor of the room.

Architects and designers, Charles Percier and Pierre François Fontaine are the creators of the Empire style and George Jacob and his son, George the Elder and Francois Honore. The latter will partner with his father under the name Jacob Desmalter and their production is already industrial-type, will often be made after drawings by Percier and Fontaine. At the same time, in England, is known as Regency comfortable style, which emphasizes the use of mahogany, while the United States Duncan Phyfe popularized models inspired both the Greco -Roman as the Regency.

After 1815, styles Restoration France, Biedermeier Germany and Austria offer a version less heroic of the previous style, but more intimate and comfortable, with its loose shapes.

Eclecticism

Our age has no forms, says Musset in 1836. In fact, the taste of XIXs is very eclectic. After the Greco- Roman and Egyptian, it resurrects the medieval under the influence of the Romantics: hence the Gothic furniture, full of fantasy, appeared in France around 1830. This inspiration, already present in England XVIII century, is included under the reign of Victoria by the architect Philip Speakman Webb.

Jacob Desmalter, washstand

In France, under Napoleon III, the style is a pastiche of all styles: The buffet is "Renaissance ", the bottom cabinet "Boulle", small furniture "Louis XV" or "Louis XVI", without forgetting the imitation of Chippendale or furniture "Chinese", lacquered black inlaid with mother of pearl and threads golden. The ingenuity of manufacturers is considerable, and is expressed particularly in the variety of seats they have in common concern for the comfort of the pad spring, covered with fabric upholstery. Among other innovations: the ottoman, the confidant and the indiscreet, the sullen and the terminal. This eclecticism afflicts the whole of Europe until the end of XIXs.

Rise in industrial production

Inspired by the art of making canes and starting from the aesthetic of furniture Biedermeier, Michael Thonet, German based in Vienna, created in 1840 a furniture revolutionary, called a boom. It performs essentially the seats from a small number of components: rods of beech, turned then bent to steam and shaped into molds, and finally assembled with screws and nuts. With their elegance, durability and moderate price, these seats have found their place in both the palaces of Vienna in bourgeois or in cafes: backed chairs with multiple variants, rocking chairs, office chairs, small tables, clothes, beds. Exported throughout Europe and the United States, millions of furniture emerge factories Thonet until the Second World War. Architects Wagner, Hoffmann and Loos, before 1914, and Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, by 1930, provide models.

Meanwhile, the United States, inventors concerned with solving practical problems apply for patents during the second half of XIX’s. More concerned with usability than aesthetics, they design furniture often metal, which facilitates their manufacture by industry: rocking chair steel, convertible sofa bed, chair dentist chair, typewriter, and even a curious piano cot - convenient, established in 1866.