Alexandre Georges Fourdinois (1799-1871), two-part cabinet, XIXe

ALEXANDRE GEORGES FOURDINOIS

1799 – 1871

CABINET WITH TWO BODY AND FOUR LEAVES

BIOGRAPHY :

The name of Fourdinois is one of the most important names in the Parisian cabinetmaking of the Second Empirc. Fourdinois father (Alexandre Georges), founded his house in 1835 and became one of the most important furniture sculptors of the Second Empire, official supplier of Empress Eugénie. At the beginning of his career, and until 1848, he worked with the sculptor Fossey. He successively obtained a silver medal at the National Industrial Products Exhibitions of 1844 and 1849, a large council medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1851 and the large medal of honor in 1855. The report of the Jury of the Universal Exhibition of 1867 specified that this house had given "in 1851 a real impetus to artistic cabinetmaking". His son Henri-Auguste who, trained by the architect Duban, had started out for two years as a draftsman with Morel, a goldsmith in London, then with the bronzier Paillard, joined him in 1860. The Universal Exhibition in London in 1862 consecrated the father's talents with two medals of great excellence in composition and execution; and the rank of officer in the order of the Legion of Honor. Shortly after, if we are to believe theTrade Almanac From 1863, the Fourdinois furniture factory further diversified its activities, adding tapestry to cabinetmaking and carpentry, and being able to produce "complete, simple and rich furnishings". We should probably see in this extension the role of Henri Fourdinois who, thanks to has his creative talents, brought his house to the pinnacle at the Universal Exhibition of 1867, obtaining the grand prize in classes 14 and 15, while his collaborators received medals or mentions.

Alongside a current production of all kinds of furniture, high quality works came out of the Fourdinois workshops. For important exhibitions, they created exceptional pieces of furniture and received numerous orders from the Mobilier de la Couronne but also from a wealthy private clientele, such as Princess Mathilde, the bankers Pereire and Ottinger, La Païva, the Rothschilds, the Parisian industrialist JF Cail or even aristocrats in love with the past such as the Count of Saint-Laumer, the cons of Choler in Beauregard or the Viscount of Boisgelin.

More than the Louis style XVI from which they were often inspired, the specialty of La maison Fourdinois seems to have been sculpted furniture in the style of the Renaissance. It is in this style that the Fourdinois, father and son, have created their masterpieces. In 1851, the English government had purchased at the end of the Universal Exhibition in London many objects which were to constitute in the South Kensington Museum an illustration of what was being done best abroad in the field of industrial arts, both from purely technical point of view than that of artistic creation. This policy was continued at the Exposition of 1855.

This is how Fourdinois, whose contribution had already been particularly noticed, saw himself buying two two-part pieces of furniture in the style of XVIth century:

– a cabinet with two bodies and four leaves, purchased in 1851 at the Universal Exhibition in London by the South Kensington Museum (today the Victoria and Albert Museum) – see reproduction in the photos (the first in black and white).

– a two-part cabinet, purchased in 1855 at the Universal Exhibition in Paris by the South Kensington Museum (today the Victoria and Albert Museum) (Inv. 2692-1856) – see reproduction in the photos (the 2nd in black and white).

The piece of furniture that we are presenting is fully in line with this exceptional production. He introduces himself comme a piece of furniture with two bodies, opening in the upper part with four carved leaves. The central part, higher than on the sides, is surmounted by a cartouche with letters SA interlaced designating the initials of the sponsor (Salmon A?). The slightly projecting lower body opens with four sculpted leaves between caryatids. At the belt, three drawers respond to the tripartite division of the furniture. The most remarkable is the sculpted decoration: the ornamentation uses the naturalist repertoire and the allegorical figures inspired by the art of Jean Goujon, the caryatids, the low relief interlacing on the drawers and the cornice, the characters in high relief on the medallions that adorn the leaves contrast with the geometric decoration that adorns the lower part. Our furniture is inspired very closely by cabinets produced in Ile de France in XVIth century and presents itself as one of the manifestations of this taste for the Renaissance which was essential in France since the reign of Louis Philippe.

RELATED WORKS:

– Cabinet with two bodies and four leaves, purchased in 1851 at the Universal Exhibition in London by the South Kensington Museum (now Victoria and Albert Museum)

– Cabinet with two bodies, purchased in 1855 at the Universal Exhibition in Paris by the South Kensington Museum (today the Victoria and Albert Museum) (Inv. 2692-1856)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

– Denise Ledoux-Lebard, The French Furniture of XIXth century, 1986, amateur edition

– Catalog of the Maison Fourdinois auction, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 1867.

– Olivier Gabet (Director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris), Maison Fourdinois: neo-styles and neo-renaissance in the decorative arts in France in the second half of the XIXth century, thesis defended at the Ecole de Chartes, class of 2000.

- Olivier Gabet, French cabinet makers and England: The case of the Maison Fourdinois (1835-1885), APOLLO, January 2002

– Drawings by Fourdinois at the Forney library (Fol. 5581 – reserve): Second Furniture  Empire […] trophies, tables […], consoles, sideboards, low furniture: a variant of the lower part (p.164); a variant of the upper part (p.169)