About

This catalogue focuses on French ébénisterie furniture in the Rococo style dating from 1735 to 1760. These splendid objects directly reflect the tastes of the Museum’s founder, J. Paul Getty, who started collecting in this area in 1938 and continued until his death in 1976.

The Museum’s collection is particularly rich in examples created by the most talented cabinet masters then active in Paris, including Bernard II van Risenburgh (after 1696–ca. 1766), Jacques Dubois (1694–1763), and Jean-François Oeben (1721–1763). Working for members of the French royal family and aristocracy, these craftsmen excelled at producing veneered and marquetried pieces of furniture (tables, cabinets, and chests of drawers) fashionable for their lavish surfaces, refined gilt-bronze mounts, and elaborate design. These objects were renowned throughout Europe at a time when Paris was considered the capital of good taste.

The entry on each work comprises both a curatorial section, with description and commentary, and a conservation report, with construction diagrams. An introduction by Anne-Lise Desmas traces the collection’s acquisition history, and two technical essays by Arlen Heginbotham (with Jessica Chasen and Michael Schilling) present methodologies and findings on the analysis of gilt-bronze mounts and lacquer.

Citation Information

Chicago

Wilson, Gillian, and Arlen Heginbotham. French Rococo Ébénisterie in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Edited and with an introduction by Anne-Lise Desmas. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2021. http://www.getty.edu/publications/rococo/.

MLA

Wilson, Gillian, and Arlen Heginbotham. French Rococo Ébénisterie in the J. Paul Getty Museum. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2021. http://www.getty.edu/publications/rococo/. Accessed Feb. 23, 2021.

Permanent URL

http://www.getty.edu/publications/rococo/

Revision History

Any revisions or corrections made to this publication after the first edition date will be listed here and in the project repository at github.com/thegetty/rococo/, where a more detailed version history is available. The revisions branch of the project repository, when present, will also show any changes currently under consideration but not yet published here.

March 30, 2021

  • First edition

Other Formats

This publication was created using Quire™, a multiformat publishing tool from Getty.

© 2021 J. Paul Getty Trust

CC BY-NC

Unless otherwise indicated, the text and images of this work are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 1-6, 2-6, 2-11, 3-6, 3-16, 4-3, 4-8, 5-3, 5-11, 6-3, 6-4, 7-4, 7-5, 7-6, 8-8, 9-8, 10-5, 10-6, 10-8, 11-2, 11-3, 12-3, 14-3, 14-10, 14-11, 15-5, 15-6, 16-3, 16-4, 16-9, 17-1, 17-2, 18-6, 18-9, 19-4, 19-5, 21-3, and 21-4 are reproduced with the permission of the rights holders acknowledged in captions and are expressly excluded from the CC BY-NC license covering the rest of this publication. These images may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted, or manipulated without consent from the owners, who reserve all rights.

Published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Getty Publications
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 500
Los Angeles, California 90049-1682
getty.edu/publications

Tevvy Ball and Rachel Barth, Project Editors
Greg Albers, Digital Manager
Catherine Lorenz, Cover Designer
Victoria Gallina, Production
Kelly Peyton, Image and Rights Acquisition
Erin Cecele Dunigan and Victoria Barry, Digital Assistants

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  • Names: J. Paul Getty Museum, author, issuing body. | Desmas, Anne-Lise, editor, writer of introduction. | Chasen, Jessica, contributor.
  • Title: French Rococo ébénisterie in the J. Paul Getty Museum / Gillian Wilson and Arlen Heginbotham ; edited and with an introduction by Anne-Lise Desmas ; with Jessica Chasen, Yannick Chastang, Jan Dorscheid, Clara von Englehardt, Philippe Halbert, Katrina Posner, Michael Schilling, and Ron Schmidtling
  • Description: First edition. | Los Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “Catalogue of the Rococo ébénisterie furniture in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum”— Provided by publisher.
  • Identifiers: LCCN 2020036837 (print) | LCCN 2020036838 (ebook) | ISBN 9781606066300 (paperback) | ISBN 9781606066324 (ebook) | ISBN 9781606066317
  • Subjects: LCSH: J. Paul Getty Museum—Catalogs. | Furniture—France—History—18th century—Catalogs. | Cabinetwork—France—History—18th century—Catalogs. | Furniture, Rococo—France—Catalogs. | Furniture—California—Los Angeles—Catalogs.
  • Classification: LCC NK2548 .J285 2021 (print) | LCC NK2548 (ebook) | DDC 749.0944/09033—dc23
  • LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020036837
  • LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020036838

Front cover: Detail of cat. no. 16
Back cover: Cat. no. 11