A Series of Four French Louis XV Silk-Embroidered Panels, Probably Lyon, Mid-18th Century

Carlton Hobbs, London;

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian, 19 December 2002.

These exceptionally rare embroidered panels form a parallel in silk and thread to the remarkable set of four decorative chinoiserie panels painted in oil and canvas by Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808), also in the Tavitian Collection (see lot 1034 in The Vision of Aso O. Tavitian. Master Paintings & Sculpture, 7 February 2025). They provide a tangible manifestation of the enormous influence of Pillement's creativity and inventive genius on French interiors and decorative arts in the middle of the eighteenth century.

Pillement was born in Lyon into a family of decorative artists, who had originally been connected with La Grande Fabrique, which was the prestigious silk weaving manufactory of the French court. Pillement trained as a draughtsman. He was a prolific landscape painter but is renowned for his popular chinoiserie designs, including well executed figures, which showed originality and sophistication. He travelled for work throughout his life although never going to China: initially he moved from Lyon to Paris (c.1743) to work for the Gobelins tapestry manufactory (which collaborated with La Fabrique); Madrid (1740s), Lisbon (1750), working for King Pedro III and Queen Maria I; back and forth to London (1754-1760); Vienna, for Emperor France I and Maria Theresa, and the Prince of Liechtenstein; Warsaw (1665-1667) providing paintings for King Stanislaw August Poniatowski’s Warsaw castles, having been appointed Premier Peintre du Roi; Versailles (1778) becoming Peintre de la Reine to Queen Marie Antoinette; back to Portugal (1780) as court painter, and eventually back to France. 

Pillement would have come across the chinoiserie theme taken up by other artists in Paris, including elegant interpretations by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) and Francois Boucher (1703-1770) and is considered to have been their leading exponent and heir. Boucher, a painter, engraver and director of the Gobelins from (1755-1770), designed a well known and fashionable second series of chinoiserie tapestries, which were woven, and later added to, at the Royal Aubusson Manufactory in the late 18th century. The themes were scenes from the life of the Emperor and Empress of China, and included the banquet, the fair, the dance, fishing, hunting and the toilet, then the aviary, the gardener and the tea. They were based on the original Beauvais tapestry series of 'The Story of the Emperor of China’, woven under the directorship of Behagle, from designs of 1685-1690. The chinoiserie theme extended within textiles to seat upholstery, silk wallpapers and to silk hangings.

Naturalism and the printed, largely imagined scenes of China were inspiration for Pillement, who imaginatively elaborated upon the combination creating fantastical inventions of design. He published Un nouveau livre d’ornements chinois (London 1755), and by 1773 he had completed twenty-four folios of chinoiserie designs, from which he drew inspiration, with variations. His publication Nouvelle suite de cahiers arabesques chinois a l’usage des dessinateurs et des peintres (1790-1799) shows design elements from which the present panels appear to take inspiration (for examples see English etchings, after Pillement, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Acc.No.21.91.4, 5 & 21). Many prints after his drawings were widely circulated, and he became the leading exponent of the rococo chinoiserie. He was a prolific and successful designer. The versatility of the patterns resulted in their lasting influence both during and after his lifetime within France, England and Russia. Due to the proliferation of prints, the designs were adopted by countless artistic manufactories and adapted into silver ware and ceramics, interior wall decoration, wallpapers, tapestries and textiles. As a subject the chinoiserie theme remained popular for over a century, and the imaginative interpretation of the exotic subject retained its appeal.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Bennett, Anna Gray, Five Centuries of Tapestry, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco 1992, Cat. Nos. 80-83, pp.258-269;Cat. Nos. 86-87, pp.274-279.

Bremer-David, Charissa, French Tapestries & Textiles in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 1997, cat. 8, pp. 72-80

Bremer-David, Charissa, French Tapestries & Textiles in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, cat. 9, pp. 80-97

Bruijn, Emile de, Borrowed Landscapes: China and Japan in the Historic Houses and Gardens of Britain and Ireland, London 2023,

Thomas Campbell, Tapestry in the Baroque, Threads of Splendour, Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition, Yale University Press, 2002, Charissa Bremer-David, Manufacture Royale de Tapisseries de Beauvais, 1664-1715, catalogue nos. 50-52, pp.407-439.

Hayman, Richard, Chinoiserie, London 2021

Honour, Hugh, Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay, London 1973

Standen, Edith, ‘The Story of the Emperor of China: A Beauvais Tapestry Series’, The Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1976, Vol. 11, pp.103-117.

Vollmer, John E., Keall, E.J., Nagai-Berthrong, E., Silk Roads. China Ships, exhibition catalogue, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 1983