Ref.12932
Manufacture de Sèvres «Matinado », ceramic sculpture from a model by Félix CHARPENTIER, 1910

Our marble sculpture is a copy of the original model exhibited in the 1909 Salon des Artistes Français by Félix Charpentier (1858-1924), untitled « Matinado », morning in Italian. It was made by the Manufacture de Sèvres in 1910, as indicate the marks on the back. Félix Charpentier was an important sculptor in the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. After studying in the École des Beaux-Arts of Avignon, then in Paris, he shows in 1879, then regularly each year, his works in the Salon des Artistes français. He knows during all his career, a huge success and wins a silver medal in the International Exhibition of 1889, many medals for his sends to the Salon, very often bought by the State, and receives in April 1892, the Légion d’honneur. The plaster model of our sculpture depicting a stretching naked woman, was presented in the 1907 Salon des Artistes Français. Already considered as true masterpiece, the marble sculpture was ordered by the State to the sculptor in 1908, meaning one year before its official presentation to the Salon in 1909. This same year, the sculpture was attributed to Louvre Museum, then in 1911 to the Luxembourg Museum before being given in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Arras in 1926. For the plaster, also bought by the State, it was given to the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Histoire of Châteaudun. By knowing a true success, many reductions were made by the sculptor who had also a collaboration with the Manufacture de Sèvres to create in ceramic his most important sculptures like our beautiful awakened, which was very likely one of the first made. We can see one of the example on a photograph of the manufactory display in the Exposition Internationale urbaine de Lyon in 1914, and on another picture illustrating the article « La Manufacture de Sèvres à l’Exposition Internationale de Lyon » published in the newspaper Comœdia, on the 24th of january 1914.

Ref.16138
Polylobed work table with insects and butterflies

Set upon a triangular base in floral marquetry, three curved service-tree wood legs—whose form was only made possible after the adoption of the wood-bending techniques developed by the Viennese firm Thonet—cross elegantly to support a gracefully designed polylobed basket-shaped body. The curving sides of this basket are decorated with marquetry panels composed of various woods—amaranth, birch, East Indian ebony, maple, holly, and stained holly—where a dragonfly and a butterfly flutter among leafy branches. The polylobed lid, fitted with a mirror framed by a twisted moulding, opens to reveal an interior upholstered in raspberry-colored silk. The fully marqueted blooming flower on the top continues the same naturalistic and vegetal theme. At the three corners of the basket and running along the legs, patinated and painted bronze ornaments constitute one of the most distinctive aspects of the piece: hanging flowers, foliage, and a large grasshopper whose remarkable realism is heightened by the coloration of the bronzes, producing striking trompe-l’œil effects. This animal presence evokes the imagery of Japanese prints, then highly fashionable in Paris. The table thus brings together ideas from diverse sources: marquetry inherited from the 18th century, animal ornamentation close to the naturalistic sculpture of the second half of the 19th century, and a structural design derived from Viennese cabinetmaking. The composition anticipates certain developments of Art Nouveau. Several versions of this model are known, including one preserved at the Musée de l’École de Nancy and another at the Musée d’Orsay. The first version was presented hors concours at the Exposition Universelle of 1878. Service-tree wood legs; marquetry of various woods; patinated and painted bronzes; fabric and upholstery; mirror.