Description
w - `LES PÉCHEURS', A GOBELINS TAPESTRY, WOVEN BETWEEN 1692-1740, FROM THE SERIES LES ANCIENNES INDES, AFTER CARTOONS BY ALEXANDRE-FRANCOIS DESPORTES, BASED ON PAINTINGS BY ALBERT VAN DER EECKHOUT AND FRANS POST COMMISSIONED BY PRINCE MAURICE OF NASSAU AND GIVEN TO LOUIS XIV IN 1679
456cm. high, 322cm. wide; 14ft. 11in., 10ft. 6in.
woven basse lisse, within the `première' four-sided borders of gold and red alternating acanthus leaf and guilloche bands on a blue ground, with further narrow inner husk and outer red and gold banded borders, with blue outer selvedge
the reverse with a section of old lining marked in ink with: No 158. INDIENS. 8.P.4. au, 2 au 3/4
PROVENANCE
Collection of H. Braquenie, sold 18υth May 1897
Collection Carlos de Beistegui, Labia Palace, Venice, sold 6-10υth April 1964
Private Collection
PALAZZO LABIA
This Palazzo Labia, past home to the present Indes tapestries, has association with an intoxicatingly exuberant era and style which stands out in the history of Venice and society living.
Palazzo Labia, is a Venetian, Baroque, palazzo built at the beginning of the 18th century. It is most notable for containing a most remarkable room painted between (1746-47) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, with decorative works in trompe l'oeil by Gerolamo Mengozzi-Colonna. The palazzo was designed by the architect Andrea Cominelli. During the 19th century the Palazzo fell into decay, this also coincided with a period where Tiepolo's work was unpopular and unappreciated. In 1945 a munitions boat exploded close to the palazzo shattering its already precarious foundations. The Labia family, who commissioned the palazzo, were originally Spanish. In the latter half of the 20th century the palazzo acquired a new owner Don Carlos de Beistegui, heir to a Mexican silver fortune. He commenced a programme of structural restoration and as a skilled interior decorator, purchased for the derelict palazzo furnishings acquired from many of the palazzo's less fortunate neighbours including frescoes by Raphael, Annibale Carracci, and Guido Reni, these works of art coupled with newly acquired tapestries and antiques restored to the palazzo some of its former splendour. So avid a collector was Don Carlos that his taste became known as "le goût Beistegui (the Beistegui style)".
On 3rd September 1951 Don Carlos threw a party at the Palazzo Labia, a costume ball `Le Bal Oriental' (Bal Beistegui), which was one of the largest and most lavish social events of the 20th century. It launched the career of the Venetian fashion designer Pierre Cardin, who designed about thirty of the costumes worn by members of the "dolce vita" who attended. Cecil Beaton's photographs of the ball display an almost surreal society, reminiscent of the Venetian life immediately before the fall of the republic at the end of the 18th century. The party was to be one of the last truly spectacular events in the famous ballroom
An auction of objects belonging to Don Carlos in 1964, included many items from his collection including the four Anciennes Indes tapestries. Don Carlos died in 1970 leaving the palazzo in good repair, and many of newly acquired works of art to the Louvre in Paris, and others bequeathed to his heir along with his French home Château de Groussay which was similarly furnished. When this collection, together with some of the Palazzo Labia's former contents was auctioned by Sotheby's in 1999 it proved to be France's largest and a highly priced auction. Today the palazzo is no longer a private residence, but regional headquarters of Rai (the Italian National Television).
LA MAISON BRAQUENIÉ
The name Braquenié is synonymous with highly sought after exotic, tasteful and glamorous textiles. Henri Braquenié played a large part in establishing this reputation.
Founded at the beginning of the 19th century by Mr. Demy Doineau (1798-1848), during a period in which France had established itself in the domain of the decorative arts. Braquenié was able to create a universe of matching rugs and fabrics for the most prestigious décors. In 1821, Pierre-Antoine Demy and his wife took over the family business and set up in rue Vivienne in Paris where they assembled the most beautiful collections of rugs and tapestries in the capital. The business was successful from the start and in 1830, was named by King Louis-Philippe as "silk fabric merchant to the King". Ten years later, it acquired the "atelier de Paris" in Aubusson and then implemented a policy of creating exclusive models which were to make it famous.
In the middle of the 19th century in partnership with Alexandre Braquenié (1812-1879), the house offered everything flourishing society could want. In 1848, Alexandre found in his son-in-law, Henri Braquenié, (1815-1897) a new associate. During forty-nine years, H. Braquenié directed the house. An auction of his collection in 1897 is recorded.
The house continued to be preminent in its field. The Empress Eugénie and Napoléon III, Duc Pozzo di Borgo, the Marquess de la Païva and the Rothschild family all became loyal clients. Official orders flooded in: a rug was woven for the Palais du Luxembourg, another for Notre Dame de Paris and for the Vatican. Its reputation extended beyond the borders of France, with the courts of Spain, Italy and Russia and Sultan Said, the pasha of Egypt, ordering their décors from Braquenié. Prestigious orders continued to be the mainstay of the business during the 19th century, for example those completed for the liner "Normandie" and replicas of historic décors, notably for the Grand Trianon. Braquenié always blended tradition and innovation, associating reproductions of forgotten designs with orders from a number of new designers. It has regularly worked in partnership with contemporary artists, the most famous of which were Picart-Le-Doux, Saint-Saëns and Lurçat.
In 1991, the company "Pierre Frey" bought this living cultural heritage. Respectful of the glorious past of the old established house, it has preserved its soul while bringing it into the 21st century. In 2003, Patrick Frey created a department responsible for bringing together and reorganising all the archives relating to the history of Braquenié. Its mission is to preserve this varied inheritance enriched with designs and acquisitions, to propose new sources of inspiration to the Group's design bureaux and offer clients and interior decorators a customised service. Today, Braquenié concentrates on the textile trades (silk, prints and weaves) and custom made rugs, and has entrusted Sotheby's with the dispersion of part of its tapestry related documentation. Braquenié has chosen to carefully conserve its textile archives and will continue to add to them.
LITERATURE
These tapestries at the end of the 17υth century introduced a novel and exotic subject which included luxuriant vegetation and use of `Indian' figures, and exuberance of conception which was favourably received.
The original cartoons were designed either in 1650 or 1663 by Albert Eeckhout (1610-1665) and Frans Post (1612-1680), with later alterations by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699), Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay (1653-1715), René-Antoine Houasse (1644/1645 - 1710) and François Bonnemer (1638-1689); There were modifications made by Alexandre François Desportes (1661-1743), and the series was woven between 1692-1730.
The titles of the eight Indes (Old Indies) tapestries were:-
Le Cheval Rayé (The Zebra), Les Deux Taureaux (The Two Bulls), L'Eléphant /or Le Cheval Isabelle (The Elephant /or The Horse Isabelle), Le Chasseur Indien (The Indian Hunter), Le Combat des Animaux (The Animal Fight), Le Roi Porté par Deux Maures (The King borne by Two Moors), Le Cheval Pommelé /or L'Indien à Cheval (The Indian on horseback /or The Grey Horse) and Les Pêcheurs (The Fishermen).
The first set of tapestries was woven in 1687-1688 in the workshops of Mozin and Jean de la Croix. The Gobelins manufactory, under the directorship of Charles Le Brun contracted out the weaving to separate establishments, which numbered five at this time and Mozin and de la Croix were contractors for low warp loom commissions. Directorship of the Gobelins went to Pierre Mignard on Brun's retirement in 1690, and to Robert de Cotte from 1699-1735. In 1692 Francois Desportes (portraitist and animal painter) was commissioned to repaint the original models, for use on high warp looms. Maurice Fenaille - Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1907, Vol.IV, p.40 `Les Nouvelles Indes', & Vol.II (période Louis XIV), p.371, records the origins of this series.
Despite numerous repairs the models sustained considerable wear due to the continuous weaving of tapestries from them up until 1730 and in 1735 Desportes was commissioned to produce new models, which were framed in 18υth century frame-pattern borders. These were then known as Les Nouvelles Indes to distinguish them from the previous series which came to be known as Les Anciennes Indes. The first set of the new series, with eight compositions, was woven 1740-1744. They were exhibited at various Salons and although based on the old designs, they were lively and a more realistic vision of nature than the originals. Jacques Nielson, tapestry weaver (workshop formed by the amalgamation of four low-warp workshops including that of de la Croix), and contractor for the Gobelins between 1749-1751 and 1751-1788 was responsible for various technical weaving improvements to low warp looms and he made concerted efforts to supervise against the use of excessive multiplication of colour in tapestries. The Gobelins manufactory underwent a very difficult time with regard to the weaver's involvement over the designs of tapestries, and the craftsmen weaver's traditional and formal colour schemes were ignored and tapestries became woven pictures and the leading artists strict control over adherence to the new colour palettes had a detrimental effect on many of the tapestry series woven. In the hands of the skilled master weavers at Gobelins the low warp method was considered the superior technique.
This series is extremely distinctive and imaginative and of a fine quality weave and was only woven for the Royal Gobelins manufactory. This was not a series that was ever woven by the Beauvais or Aubusson workshops. The history as a series, based on the expedition records, were adapted for the looms at a forty year interval by the same designer and woven at the highest quality Paris workshop.
Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Period Louis XIV, 1662-1699, XXIX. - Les Indes, pp. 397-398, records a table of the series production between 1687 and 1730.
· 1687-1688, Set of eight by De la Croix workshop, basse lisse, première border, by 1900 destination not known;
· 1689-1690, Set of eight by De la Croix and Mozin workshops, basse lisse, première border, for Garde-Meuble and later Versailles, by 1900 dispersed between Ministère de L'Agriculture, Garde-Meuble, and four to Berlin;
· 1692-1700, Set of eight by Jans and Lefebvre workshops haute lisse, première border, given to Tsar Peter the Great, 17υth June 1717;
· 1701-1718, Ten pieces woven, Le Blond workshop, basse lisse, première border, for the Duke of Malta, Raymond de Perellos;
· 1718-1720, Set of eight by Jans and Lefebvre workshops, haute lisse, premiére border, for the Gobelins Collection, and given by the King to M. Bouret, Directeur des postes, 24υth July 1769;
· 1723-1727, Set of eight `Petit Indes', by Jans, Lefebvre, and De la Tour workshops, haute lisse, duexièmè border, for the Académie de France à Rome, which by 1900 was located in the Villa Medici;
· 1726-1728, Set of six, by Jans, Lefebvre, and De la Tour workshops, haute lisse, duexièmè border, for the Académie de France à Rome, by 1900 dispersed to Ministry of Justice, Villa Medici Rome and Embassy buildings in Berlin;
· 1725-1732, Set of six, by Jans and Lefebvre workshops, haute lisse, duexièmè border for Store/Magasin des Gobelins, now dispersed;
· 1726-1730, Set of eight, by Jans, Lefebvre, and De la Tour workshops, haute lisse, duexièmè border, by 1789 at Versailles, but not appeared in inventory of 1793.
The Les Nouvelles Indes and Les Anciennes Indes are both series which appear rarely at auction, particularly as sets, and even then as individual panels they can have been altered or lack borders entirely.
The most recent Indes piece auctioned was at Sotheby's, New York, 11υth October 1995, Les deux Taureaux', from the series Les Nouvelles Indes (Estimate of $60,000 sold for $321,500). The last from the series Les Anciennes Indes, was a version of `Le Roi porté par deux Maures' sold Sotheby's, London, 15υth June 1973, lot 25.
Sotheby's, London, 4υth June 1971, offered a set of four tapestries from the series Les Nouvelles Indes, after Desportes, by Neilson, woven circa 1761, without borders, formerly belonging to Colonel T. Wildman, later of Newsteed, purchased in Paris on return from the Peninsular War. A version of this subject, Les Pêcheurs (lot 9), signed Neilson Ex, was sold with a weaving of Le Chasseur Indien, Le Combat des Animaux and Le Chameau/ Le Cheval Pommelé (lots 6-8). A set of corresponding titles, (with sizes recording without borders) are recorded by Fenaille as having been sold to the Duc de Noailles, 30υth January 1768.
`Les Pêcheurs'
For another weaving of this subject, from the Anciennes Indes, Paris, haute-lisse workshop, 1692-1723, woven in reverse to the present composition, and although a slightly extended composition, with the foreground Tapuya Indians being more centrally placed and the seated female's feet between them, the design includes another flying bird and the edge of the palm fronds at the top of the composition and more sky, otherwise it is virtually identical with the colours being tonally the same, with variation only to the cloth wrap around the hips of the archer which is indigo blue, and the tapestry has the same frame pattern border (approx. 356cm. high, 305cm. wide), see Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smith, European Tapestries in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2004, Cat. 105 (Inv.BK-1968-21), pp.348-350.
Jacqueline Boccaro, Le Mobilier Francais du Moyen Age, 1988, pp.299-305, discusses the series Les Indes, and illustrates, pg. 301 (colour plate), a version of Les Pêcheurs, from the Nouvelles Indes weaving, in twisted ribbon and acanthus border (325cm. x 215cm), from the Galerie Seligmann, Collection du Musée Jacquemart-André.
This published piece is cited in the Inventory, Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Period Louis XIV, 1662-1699, XXIX. - Les Indes, Ventes et collections particulières, V. Collection Seligmann, pg. 396. The inventory, ibid. Ventes et collections particulières, II, notes the sale of objects of art, 2-3 Juillet 1891, (Paul Chevalier, Paris), no. 163, which from the description was a weaving of Les Pêcheurs, in a border bearing the coat-of-arms of France (390cm. x 265cm.)
`L'Indien à cheval / or Le Cheval pommelé'
Madeleine Jarry, La Tapisserie des origines à nos jours, Hachette, 1968, p.217 (colour plate) and p.218, illustrates an Anciennes Indes weaving, circa 1689, from the workshop of De la Croix, (470cm. x 360cm.), now in the Garde-Meuble, Paris. The mounted figure of the Indian is replaced in the New Indies version by a camel with a monkey on its back which faces in the other direction.
`Le Roi porté par deux Maures'
Sotheby's, London, 15υth June 1973, lot 25, The property of Mrs John Pollock, for a comparable, late 17υth century weaving of this subject, possibly from the workshop of Jan Jans, in a similar frame pattern border (371cm. x 284cm.).
Fenaille: op.cit. no.V. p.56, illustrates a weaving of this subject there called La Reine portée par deux maures.
Göbel, op.cit., abb. 120, illustrates a weaving of this subject, woven in reverse of the present weaving, within an elaborate border, formerly from the Achille Leclercq Collection. This published piece is cited in the Inventory, Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Period Louis XIV, 1662-1699, XXIX. - Les Indes, Ventes et collections particulières, IV. Collection A. Leclercq, pp. 395-396. Le Roi porté, was one of four tapestries recorded in this collection, from the Jans workshop of the Gobelins manufactory, and included Le Cheval Rayé, L'Elephant, Le Chasseur Indien, the later signed IANS. Des Gobelins.
Le Combat des Animaux
Sotheby's, Monaco, 22υnd June 1986, lot 641, from the Collection of Charles de Pauw, for an Anciennes Indes, weaving of this subject without borders (262cm. x 244cm.), reduced in height, circa 1723-1730.
Maurice Fenaille, Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, no.II , describes the design of the later `New Indies' design of the Combat d'Animaux. Fenaille, p.56, and Heinrich Göbel, Die Wandteppiche, 1928, Part II, Vol.ii, no., abb.119, also illustrate Le Combat d'animaux.
Another weaving of this subject from the Tenture des Nouvelles des Indes, Paris, 1774-1778, woven by Jacques Neilson, woven with a lion ravaging the central animal and with an additional vicious dog, woven within an elaborate frame pattern border, exists in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Inv. T XV), see Rotraud Bauer, L'anciennes collection impériale de tapisseries du Kunsthistorisches Museum de Vienne, Actes du colloque international de Chambord, La tapisserie au XVIIe siècle et les collections européennes, 18th-19th October 1996, pg.123.
RELATED TAPESTRY SERIES LITERATURE
For discussion of a weaving of Le Cheval Rayé, from the Anciennes Indes, within a gold and red frame pattern border, with the coat-of-arms of Camus de Pontcarré de Viarmes de la Guibourgère (326cm. high, 580cm. wide), see Charissa Bremer-David, French Tapestries and Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997, Gobelins Manufactory, Ref. 2, pp. 10-19.
Guy Blazy, Catalogue des Tapisseries, Musée des Tissus, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Lyons, 1996, pp. 66-67, no.26, illustrates a version of Les deux taureaux, from the series Les Nouvelles Indes, workshop of Le Blond (signed L. Blond. Ex.it), circa 1741-1742, (420cm. x 505cm), with a frame-pattern border.
Nello Forti Grazzini, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale, Rome, 1994, Vol.II, pp. 456-479, discusses Les Indes, and the six in particular in their collection from Les Nouvelles Indes, including cat. no. 163, pp.464-468 (with colour plates) of Combat des animaux, 1784-1786, Jacques Neilson workshop, signed Neilson ex, and from recorded Turin inventory 1880.
