The French furniture in the Gulbenkian Museum is impressive.  The collection includes pieces by two great masters: Séné and van Risen Burgh (also spelled van Risamburgh).

In a previous post, we looked at a set of Beauvais-upholstered chairs by Séné.

Pair of fauteuils by J.B.C. Séné in the Gulbenkian Foundation museum in Lisbon.

Today we’ll examine four pieces by van Risen Burgh/van Risamburgh.

In some ways, the Kingdom of New Spain, centred in what we now call Mexico, was at its height in the Versailles Century (1682-1789).

It certainly reached its greatest territorial extent in the 1700s, as the map below illustrates.

By Eddo – Own workFile:BlankMap-World-90W.svgFile:New Spain.pngFile:Nueva España 1795.pngFile:Spanish Provinces in the Pacific.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11435488

The light green areas represent the last areas to be claimed by the Spanish before the onset of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of Independence, which resulted in the collapse of Spanish rule and Mexico’s independence in 1821, not to mention that of the other countries of Central and South America.

It looks like a salon in a grand 18th century hôtel particulier in Paris, doesn’t it?

A salon in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA), Lisbon.

In fact, this salon is from the Paar Palace in Vienna, but it’s now installed in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA) in Lisbon.  I apologize for the slight blurriness of these images.  The light was difficult.  I also apologize for the inadvertent selfie!

The Chapel was the last major component of the Château to be completed.

Louis XIV had been planning a grand new chapel in the late 1680s when the War of the League of Augsburg (1688-1697), also known as the Nine Years’ War, broke out.  The plans for the Chapel were then shelved.

The Chapel of the Château de Versailles as seen from a street in the town.

When the planning resumed after the end of the war, the King had changed his mind about a crucial point of the design: instead of marble, the white stone known as banc royal would be used for the interior.

Jean Baptiste Claude Séné (1748-1803) was a master chair maker in Paris who was active from the later years of Louis XV’s reign through to the Revolution.

I photographed these chairs of his in the museum of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon last year.

Pair of fauteuils by J.B.C. Séné in the Gulbenkian Foundation museum in Lisbon.

Lisbon is a surprisingly good place to see French fine and decorative arts of the Versailles Century (1682-1789) period.  Apart from the Gulbenkian Foundation, there’s also the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA) and various palace museums.  The Portuguese elite were such francophiles that many high quality pieces make their home in the city by the Tagus.  Apart from the chairs pictured above, there are many other items of French furniture in the Gulbenkian’s collection that I’ll share in future posts.

Madame Adélaïde (1732-1800) was one of Louis XV’s children.  As such, she was a “Daughter of France,” and was accorded a truly royal apartment in the main block of the Château.

Portrait of Mme Adélaïde in 1787 by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. It hangs in her sister’s apartment at Versailles.

Her apartment adjoins that of her younger sister, Mme Victoire (1733-1799).  I previously described Mme Victoire’s apartment in an early post on this blog: http://versaillescentury.com/2016/09/22/versailles-mme-victoires-apartment/#more-304

The 2 sisters were the last of Louis XV’s offspring still alive and living in the Château towards the end of the reign of their nephew, Louis XVI. The latter also gave them the Château de Bellevue, and, unprecedentedly, the joint dukedom of Lauzun.  The layout of the rooms today is as it was arranged for the sisters in the 1780s.

The King’s State Bedroom was the ceremonial heart of the Château, but the Cabinet du conseil (Council Chamber) next door was its political heart.

The King’s Council Chamber at Versailles.

All three kings who lived at Versailles spent many hours in this room.  It was the venue for meetings of the Conseil d’Etat, the Council of State, which was effectively the cabinet.   The King also chaired the meetings of the Conseil des Dépêches (Foreign Affairs) and the Conseil des Finances (Finance) here.  Furthermore, foreign ambassadors presented their credentials in this room.  Last but not least, all those who wished to join the court had to be presented to the King here by a sponsor.  In 1745, Madame de Pompadour was presented, for instance.

One of the handsomest pieces of 18th-century furniture in the New France collection at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is this butternut and pine commode from the Montréal area, dated 1740-1760.  As mentioned in the two previous posts, Louis XV styles in New France only took hold around 1740 and persisted for decades after the British conquest in 1759.

A commode from New France/Québec in the ROM.

Although obviously provincial in style when compared to the work of the great ébénistes active in Paris at the same time, it’s a very fine piece.  As with provincial furniture in France itself, the furniture in New France was simpler in design and execution and used humber materials than that of the capital and the court.  In this case, the fancy floral moulding at the bottom, the sophisticated serpentine front, and the elaborate hardware indicate that it was a high-end piece for its time and place.  Very likely it was commissioned by a well-off family.

As a fan of 18C French decorative arts, there’s nothing I love more than a Louis XV-style fauteuil, or armchair.  Naturally, the first exhibits in the Royal Ontario Museum’s New France collection that caught my eye were these 2 elegant Louis XV fauteuils.

Two handsome fauteuils from New France in the ROM.

The dates given for both pieces are 1760-1790.  To look at them, you would think they were from before 1760 — and you would be right if they were French.  In New France, however, Louis XV styles persisted well into the 19C.  This was the effect of being cut off from the mother country after the British conquest of 1759.

Let’s look more closely at each chair.

During my long weekend in Toronto, I managed to check out the furniture of New France collection at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

Attentive readers who also follow Versailles Century on Instagram might remember that I posted this photo some time ago.

Rococo to Rustique, a book about the early French-Canadian furniture collection at the ROM.

I promised to visit the museum and write a follow up post.  In fact, I think there will be a series of posts.