The J. Paul Getty Museum presents Porcelain from Versailles: Vases for a King and Queen, bringing together two of the most extraordinary surviving sets of vases owned by King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette of France, thanks to a long-term loan from the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon and a loan from Walters Art Museum.
“The eight vases in this special installation were once personal treasures of the French king and queen and are a testament to the exemplary skills of the artists who made them,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “The installation encourages close viewing of these rare and spectacular works, exploring the themes and sources of their imaginative designs. We are extremely grateful to our colleagues at Versailles and at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore for these exceptional loans, which I have no doubt will greatly interest and delight.”
In the late 1700s, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette of France acquired two exceptional sets of decorative porcelain vases. They are among the highest achievements of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory before the French Revolution (1789–99). At that time, the firm was owned by the king, who exhibited its latest works annually at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, the royal family’s primary residence. The skillful ornamentation of these pieces includes detailed imagery depicting figures from European literature on one set and scenes evocative of East Asia on the other.
“These vases were seized and sold during the Revolution. They remained in private collections until the 20th century when those from the king’s set (five vases) were acquired by the Getty Museum and the
Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and the queen’s set (three vases) was purchased by the National Museum of Versailles,” says Jeffrey Weaver, associate curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the Getty Museum. “This exhibition reunites all eight vases, offering the rare opportunity to appreciate the craftsmanship and design of the ensembles.”
The loan of the vases that belonged to Marie-Antoinette is part of an artistic exchange between the Getty Museum and the Palace of Versailles. The Museum owns a desk that the queen ordered for her husband, King Louis XVI. Made in 1777 by her preferred cabinetmaker, Jean Henri Riesener, it was sold during the Revolution and remained in private hands until purchased by J. Paul Getty in 1971. Since 2001, the desk has been on long-term loan to Versailles, where it is displayed in the room for which it was intended in the Petit Trianon, a mansion that served as a retreat for the royal family on the grounds of the palace.
The three vases from Versailles, acquired in 1776, are richly decorated in gold and colored enamels with imaginary scenes that stand out against the bright white of the porcelain and are meant to suggest East Asia. This ornamentation represents one of the most intricate decorative schemes produced by the painter and gilder Louis François Lécot at Sèvres. The goal of all European porcelain manufacturers had been to successfully produce the brilliant white of “true,” or hard-paste, porcelain like that made in China. The manufactory at Sèvres had only just mastered this technique at the time these pieces were made. The Asian-themed decoration can be seen as a reference to the origin of the material that had fascinated Europeans for centuries.
The decoration of the queen’s vases is based on designs by the French artists François Boucher and Jean Pillement. Pillement was famous for his inventive decorative patterns that evoke Asian settings. These images accentuated European views of East Asia—a distant region with which most people in Europe had little direct experience—as a world of fantasy and frivolity. His designs were one source of inspiration for the artists at the Sèvres porcelain manufactory when conceiving the ornamentation seen on the set of three vases. A selection of Pillement’s decorative prints from the Getty Research Institute will be included in the display.
Louis XVI acquired the set of five vases from the Sèvres porcelain manufactory in 1781, and displayed them on the mantelpiece of his private library at Versailles. Sold during the Revolution, the individual pieces were eventually split between different collectors. Today, the three central vases belong to the Getty Museum, and the smallest two are owned by the Walters Art Museum. This exhibition likely marks the first time the full set of five has been seen together since before they left Versailles.
Called Vases of the Ages, the pieces have gilded handles naturalistically modeled in porcelain as heads referencing the cycle of life from childhood, at the end vases, to old age at the center. The front of each is richly painted with a mythological scene copying an illustration from one of the king’s favorite books, The Adventures of Telemachus, by Fénelon. This famous French novel tells how Telemachus, son of the Greek hero Ulysses, was educated by the Roman gods to be a wise leader. And, the vases are embellished with jewel-like decoration in which patterned gold foils enameled with different colors were applied to the surface, giving the effect of bright jewels. It was the most extravagant type of ornamentation produced at Sèvres during the 18th century.
Porcelain from Versailles: Vases for a King and Queen is curated by Jeffrey Weaver, associate curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the Getty Museum.
About the Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles, a famous world heritage site listed by UNESCO since 1979, is at the same time a royal residence, a museum of the history of France created by Louis-Philippe, and a national palace that has played host to the French Parliament in Congress. Besides its three historic residences—the Palace, the Grand Trianon, and the Petit Trianon—the estate of Versailles boasts a large Baroque garden designed by André Le Nôtre with groves and fountains, the gardens of Trianon and Marie-Antoinette’s Hamlet, a wooded park located beyond the Grand Canal, and more recently the estate of Marly since 2009. The former royal residence is a textbook in its own right of the history of France from the 17th century to the present day, and is a symbol of French art de vivre and the taste and skills of excellence. Forever anchored in the present thanks to the importance it places on creation (programme of shows, contemporary art exhibitions, promoting of artistic craftsmen and women, etc.), the Palace of Versailles’ reputation continues to spread across the world.
The Palace of Versailles collections are home to close to 84,000 pieces, from paintings, furniture, bookings, and drawings, to sculptures, art objects, carriages, and beyond. Conserving, restoring, and showcasing these collections forms the cornerstone of what this public institution sets out to achieve, along with ensuring that as many people as possible have access to these masterpieces. Every year, approximately 300 pieces are loaned out for temporary exhibitions in France and around the world. These events are an opportunity for the public to delve into the rich diversity of Versailles’ collections, right on their doorstep.
The exceptional loan of the three egg-shaped vases belonging to Queen Marie-Antoinette stems from a partnership that has bound Palace of Versailles and the Getty Museum since 2001. After the prestigious loan of Marie-Antoinette’s lacquer in 2018, the exhibition Porcelain from Versailles: Vases for a King and Queen is a new step of the solid relationship between the two institutions. Moreover, the Palace of Versailles is very pleased to take part of this unique occasion to reunite and admire together some masterpieces commissioned for the Palace of Versailles by Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. The two sets of vases were displayed in the private apartments of the king and queen at same time, at the end of the 1700s; this first reunion since the French Revolution is a big event!
