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The Way to the Art Nouveau-silver – Stylistic preferences between Second Empire and Fin de Siècle by the example of Paris orders of table silver
CLAUDIA KANOWSKI
Curator, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig
French metal art of the Art Nouveau stands out for a certain kind of formal criterions: elegant curves of the lines, organic forms and vegetable ornaments, decorations with female figures inspired by the symbolism. Here in the Bröhan-Museum, we can see examples for this (Emmanuel Orazi, Paul Follot, Maurice Dufrène, Georges de Feure). Artists from the English- and German speaking areas such as Christopher Dresser, Josef Hofmann and Bruno Paul produced completely different designs.
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Chocolate Pot
Maison Cardeilhac, Paris
Design probably Lucien Bonvallet, ca. 1895
Silver (950/1000), ivory, painted green
Bröhan-Museum, Berlin
Cat. Modern Art of Metalwork nr. 348 |
I am especially interested in the roots of these special characteristics of the French Art Nouveau, the way, which leads from the Historicism- movement of the Second Empire and the early Troisième République to the forms of style of the Fin de Siècle. In my mind, researches and exhibitions should still more emphasize the links between both epochs – Historicism and Art Nouveau. I also believe that it is insufficient to understand the decorative art of the 19th century only by a descriptive analysis of styles: Neo-Classicism, Neo Gothic, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque, Neo-Rococo and finally Art Nouveau. The study of this epoch only becomes interesting and convincing when the stylistic observations are related to the cultural-historical context. Only then we can find historical reasons for the development of styles, which never appear by chance.
In the following I want to present some aspects of my doctoral thesis, which I finished in 1997 ”Table silver for the bourgeoisie – production and customers of the Paris gold-smith companies Christofle and Odiot between Second Empire and Fin de Siècle”, which appeared last year (in 2000) in the Gebr. Mann Verlag Berlin. Both companies – Christofle and Odiot – still exist today in Paris and have extensive archive material, which I have evaluated for the research.
In the 19th century extensive table decoration consisting of figured Surtouts de table, candelabras, Jardinières, dishes and plates, cutlery and coffee- and tea-services was of great importance for the private and the public representation. Unlike in former centuries, now the customers were not principally princes and aristocrats, but above all bankers and industrialists: table silver became a phenomenon of the bourgeoisie.
The profound industrial and social changes also had an effect on the rather conservative sector of the art of the gold-smith. Modern techniques like the galvanic (electro-chemical) silver-plating gave the companies completely new possibilities. Charles Christofle, who founded his company in 1831, quickly recognised the chance to produce by means of the new industrial procedures table silver for a wider civil public as well. Christofle was the first company on the European continent that made use of the galvanic techniques for the serial production of table silver. The company’s printed catalogues in which since the 1850’s all the models and prices of the current production were listed, were part of the modern marketing concept of Christofle.
During the Second Empire, Christofle advanced to the position of a purveyor to the imperial court. Industrially silver-plated table decoration corresponded to the imperial ideology of progress formed by the Saintsimonismus. The tables in the Tuileries, the ministries and in the Paris city hall were decorated with tableware out of non precious metal, which was covered by an electrochemical procedure with a very thin film of silver and gold – the official France presented itself as well economical as modern.
On the other hand, the rich Paris bankers preferred for the decoration of their tables silver from a traditional house like Odiot, which was one of the few French goldsmith-companies, which survived the French Revolution. During the 19th century, Odiot maintained the traditional techniques of handicraft. Hardly a name from the financial world is missing in the order books: André, Camondo, Fould-Furtado, Goldschmidt, Koechlin, Rothschild. It would appear that especially the upstarts from the new-bourgeois society searched for ”remaining” in the sense of material values. Therefore they preferred to order their table silver at Odiot, often in an execution in solid silver.
After the downfall of the Second Empire in 1870, the Company Christofle considered itself to be forced to change its image. The imperial house disappeared as a lucrative client. In the field of the decorative art, the initial enthusiasm for industrial techniques changed more and more to a consciousness on traditional craft values. Now the company Christofle stressed in its advertisements that they also produced solid silver products following drafts of artists – tendencies that led to the Art Nouveau (to mentioning just some key words: demand of honesty when using the material, vocation of well known artists by the companies, handicraft point of view by the martelé technique). Much more often than in the starting years, we can find now illustred names from the Paris society in the archives from Christofle (Manzanedo-Santoòa, Pereire, Marquise de Païva, Earl Henckel von Donnersmarck...).
Even if the companies Christofle and Odiot were different in many aspects, particularly considering technical production and marketing strategies, we can nevertheless see from their products the same characteristics of design. The styles ”from Versailles” – Louis XV and Louis XVI – were exemplary, but they were not copied in a slavish way.
Two elementary tendencies can be noticed. At the time of the Second Empire the table silver in the Neo-Louis-XVI style or also (more seldom) in the Neo-Louis-XIV-style was particularly popular. By the end of the century, about 1880, people preferred silver in the Neo-Louis-XV-style with curved ornaments of the rococo.
During the Second Empire the preference for the Louis-XVI-style had a prominent representative: Empress Eugénie. In a personal admiration for Marie-Antoinette, she let the castles in Saint-Cloud, Fontainebleau, Compiègne and of course in Paris be furnished with Louis-XVI-furniture. And typically for that period of Historicism, originals of the 18th century were mixed with new interpretations of the historical styles. The imperial preference of Louis-XVI, which already at that time led to the ironical description ”style Louis-XVI-Impératrice”, has importantly influenced the bourgeoisie’s taste. The private orders of silver show that as well as the furnishing of the rich villas in Paris: Louis XVI was en vogue.
The change of taste between the Second Empire and the Fin de Siècle can be seen clearly in two orders by the government for Christofle: Two Jardinières in plated silver from a table decoration ordered by Emperor Napoléon III at Christofle in 1866, and on the other hand a Jardinière Style Régence, plated silver, executed in 1889 by Christofle for the Elysée Palace in Paris. While the iconography of the jardinières remains unchanged (allegories of the four continents), the ornamentation is changing. The model from 1866 is orientated with its classicistic decoration on the style of Louis-XVI- and also on the style Empire. On the other hand the model from 1889 shows a moving, vegetable decoration in the style about 1740 (style Régence). Nevertheless, regarding this type of object, we will search in vain for a concrete example of the 18th century. The so-called corbeilles with a figurative decoration were new creations of the Historicism. They were often used as jardinières to present flowers and, at that time, had to be on every richly decorated table. Christofle’s and Odiot’s models were free and very imaginative interpretations of historical examples.
In the 1880-years, favouring the style of Louis-XV was accompanied by a tendency of a vegetable ornamentation. It is known that Japan’s art gave decisive ideas for the intensive treatment of the botany. But in this connection it should also be considered that the French artists and art-critics tried very much to connect inspirations from the far-east with the national art traditions. They did not ask for a revolution, but for a rejuvenation of the French style (”un rajeunissement des styles français”, quotation to be read in the report from the Paris World Exhibition in 1889 by Lucien Falize, himself goldsmith). It was the style from Louis-XV, which counted as originally ”French” under the historical styles, especially because it had created an individual, vegetable ornamentation, which did not refer to classical examples. Therefore it offered the possibility to unite national and reformist arguments.
Two examples from the Christofle’s production can show clearly that supposed ”modern” models were created directly out of the Historicism- treasure of forms. In 1901 the President’s wife Madame Emile Loubet received a solid silver Surtout de table of several parts as a present of the Department Oise, made by Christofle. In its way of creating it was considered to be modern. The motto ”La Forêt” determines the decoration: Female fauns and oak leaves on the central jardinière and the bowls, on the plates fruits which are typical for the seasons (strawberries, cherries, grapes and nuts) – no allegories any more, no concrete quotations of a historical style. Nevertheless, the comparison with the jardinières ”Model Louis XV” out of the Christofle-sales catalogue from 1882 shows the narrow formal relationship: Here as there vegetable decorations, curved sides of the bowl, moving figures.
In his report from the Paris World Exhibition in 1889, Lucien Falize praised the contemporary interpretations of the Louis-XV-style, like the models presented by Christofle. The following quotation from his report reflects that indeed Neo-Louis-XV was the favourite style at that time: ”Nos orfèvres français sont tous au Rococo. (…) Ce que j’affirme, c’est qu’on a copié par toute l’Europe notre orfèvrerie du dix-huitième siècle et qu’on a jamais su la faire qu’à Paris.” (”Our French gold-smiths all adhere to the Rococo. (…) I want to emphasize that the whole of Europe has copied our art of orfèvrerie of the 18th century, however only in Paris you will find the capability of producing it.”) It is interesting that Falize lays stress on a Japanese inspired vase of glass by Emile Gallé with a bronze mounting in the Louis-XV-style from Froment-Meurice. Today one copy is in the Berlin Museum for arts and crafts. Falize described this vase as ”peut-être l’œuvre la plus parfaite que nous ayons vue parmi les reminiscences du dix-huitième siècle” (the ”perhaps most perfect work that we have seen under the reminiscences to the 18th century”). The author saw in this model the successful attempt to revitalize the French style tradition. If you think about the furniture design of Emile Gallé, Louis Majorelle or Eugène Gaillard, to be seen here in the Bröhan-Museum, it becomes clear that the Neo-Rococo-ornamentation was not replaced, but continued by the Art Nouveau.
The stylistic observations, which I have presented here with a few examples, can be transmitted to other examples of the private inside furnishings in Paris. In my work I not only examined the table silver, but, if it was possible, also the architecture and the furnishings of the Hôtels particuliers, in which the clients lived.
Especially compared to Germany I noticed how much the French Haute Bourgeoisie identified itself with the cultural heritage of the 18th century, the Ancien Régime. The governmental clients followed the ”Model of Versailles” as well as the companies, continuing an epoch during which the ”French taste” was leading in Europe. In France there did not exist, contrary to the German Empire after 1871, the search for an own ”civil style” (Bürgerstil). The courtly aristocratic example remained determining – even after the definite downfall of the monarchy and also when the Art Nouveau gained total acceptance.
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Lidded Jug ”Oxalis”
Christofle & Cie., Paris
Design probably Henri Godin between 1901 and 1909
Pewter alloy (Gallia metal), cast, silverplate
Bröhan-Museum, Berlin
Cat. Modern Art of Metalwork nr. 349 |
I do not at all want to deny the innovation of the Art Nouveau. When searching for modern principles of furnishing, great impulses came from France. I only want to show the continuities that integrate the Art Nouveau firmly into the 19th century. Probably in nearly no other country the requirement for reconciliation of tradition and modern age was so strong as it was in France. Maybe, just the radical political revolutions and the rapid industrialization led to this strong re-insurance in the common cultural patrimony.
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© 2008 Bröhan-Museum | Bronze-Figur: Agathon Léonard, Danseuse au
bracelet (Tänzerin mit Armband), um 1900, Bronze, goldpatiniert,
Susse Frères, Paris | Abb.: Kaffee- und Teeservice, Maison Cardeilhac,
Paris, um 1890 | Webdesign unicom-berlin.de |
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