Two Troubadour vases for the Duchess of Berry

The National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon maintains a vast collection of 19th-century Sèvres vases. Among them, a pair with troubadour iconography, translated into bright and bold colors, particularly deserves attention. If these two vases called “with the effigies of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel” were regularly cited as witnesses to the taste for the Middle Ages developed during the Romantic era, they had never been the subject of an in-depth study (1 ). Presenting no visible signature or mark of Sèvres, their history could only be traced by the systematic examination of the archives of the factory and the inventories of the Garde-Meuble.

By Christine Desgrez, head of documentary studies at the Palace of Versailles

We know from the number “TU 2449” stamped on the bronze bases that the pair was at the Tuileries Palace in 1833, on the ground floor of the Marsan pavilion, in the study of Ferdinand-Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1810-1842), eldest son of King Louis-Philippe (1773-1850) (2). It came out three years later to be registered in the Garde-Meuble stores on April 20, 1836 (3). It was under the Second Republic, in 1851, that these two vases “in Gothic style porcelain” were taken from the National Furniture stores (4), to be sent, with other art objects, to the new Grand Museum. Trianon and exhibited in the current Cotelle gallery, where they were inventoried in 1855 (5). Mentioned in 1894 in the so-called “Madame’s” apartment, in the left wing of the palace (6), they later moved to the reserves.

Fragonard Gothic vases, a novelty from Sèvres in 1823-1824

36.7 cm high, their silhouette derives from that of a “Medici” vase, decorated with two handles formed of plant scrolls, coral color with golden yellow highlights, freely inspired by the medieval ornamental repertoire. Named “Fragonard Gothic vase”, this form was created in Sèvres by the painter Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard (1780-1850) and accepted by the director of the factory Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), on July 25, 1823. The examination and the dismantling of the pieces made it possible to find a turner's mark, “T /23-5” for “Thion May 1823”, inscribed hollowly at the base of the cup of one of the vases. These pieces are among the first six vases of this shape turned by François-Joseph Thion (1790-1865) and brought to his account on May 31, 1823. He will turn two others in August and three more in September of the same year (7).

Our vases can therefore only have been decorated between 1823 and 1833. The manufactory's archives reveal that between these two dates, only three pairs entered the sales store: two vases, "colored gothic head decoration", on 16 April 1824 at the price of 1100 francs; two others, “muffle bottom, gothic decoration, interior subject, episode of the novel by Gérard de Nevers by Mr. Rumeau”, on June 26 at the price of 1,600 francs; a third pair “gray background, colored Gothic ornaments” on March 5, 1825, at the price of 600 francs (8).

The first pair, painted by Louis-Pierre Schilt (1790-1859) and gilded by Auguste Richard (gilder in Sèvres from 1811 to 1848) (9), between May 1823 and April 1824, is only summarily described by formulas like “Colorful Gothic decor and ornaments”, sometimes with the mention of “heads and attributes”. This description seems to be able to apply to the vases preserved at Trianon, unlike the following two. The second pair was decorated with “interior subjects” by Jean-Claude Rumeau (active in Sèvres from 1807 to 1824) (10). Finally, the third was painted by Dalila Labarchède in the same period (11), portraits of Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, Duchess of Berry (1798-1870), and her son the very young Duke of Bordeaux (born in December 1820), a bouquet of lily flowers completed its decor. The three pairs were mounted on gilded bronze bases by Louis-Honoré Boquet (1786-1860), the factory's official bronzier.

Vases intended for the Duchess of Berry

The first two pairs were part of an important delivery, “by verbal order of Baron de Ville d’Avray, to be supplied to the Château de St Cloud by June 15 [1824]” (12). They were intended for the bedroom of the Duchess of Berry (13). This delivery would not be fully recorded in the Garde-Meuble journal until three years later (14). If we do not find traces of our vases in the Saint-Cloud inventory drawn up in 1826-1829, their presence in the Tuileries in 1833 invites us to look for them in the previous catalog of the palace. The four vases are listed in 1826 in the duchess's billiard room, at the Marsan pavilion, an apartment which will be occupied by the Duke of Orléans from 1830 (15). The two vases painted by Rumeau are mentioned without a number and it is specified that they “belong to HRH Madame, Duchess of Berri [sic]”. We find the same mention for the other pair, which was nevertheless assigned a number (n° 9076). In 1987, in a study on the first neo-Gothic royal commissions, Colombe Samoyault-Verlet noticed this anomaly and saw it as a simple copyist's error (16). However, we can also assume that the four vases delivered by Sèvres to the Garde-Meuble in Saint-Cloud were offered by the king to Marie-Caroline, then transferred to her apartment in the Tuileries on an undetermined date (without returning to the Garde-Meuble, since the property of the Duchess). Only our pair remained in the Tuileries after 1830, probably already returned – or resold – to the king when the inventory was drawn up in 1826. Kept for a time by the Duke of Orléans, it was transferred to the Garde-Meuble in 1836.

Neo-Gothic decor

If the history of our vases is now well established, their neo-Gothic decoration raises many questions. The center of each face is occupied by a four-lobed pink medallion in which is inscribed, on the main faces, a head in profile painted in a cameo style standing out against a gold background: on one, the head of a young man turned to the right; on the other, that of a young woman turned to the left.

This couple is dressed in Renaissance-inspired costumes: a shirt with embroidered braid and hat with large feathers for him; ruff, headdress, and veil for her. The medallions on the reverses are occupied by attributes, drone, and pilgrim's bag on the first, and mandolin on the other.

An ornamental decoration with a pseudo-heraldic character develops around these medallions, in three rows delimited by gold-colored gemmed bands. In the upper row, spears, a helmet with large feathers, and a harp frame banners bearing various mottos: “for grandma”, “valor”, “courtesy”, “honor” on the first vase; “constancy”, “fidelity”, “loyalty” and “courage” on the second. In the second row, other mottoes are inscribed on speech bubbles placed in the center of stepped quatrefoils: “Franc […]”, “God”, “faith” and “glory” on the first; “love”, “to him”, “the King” and “[…] s dam” on the second. The lower row is occupied by the repetition of a coat of arms with a chained greyhound, supported by a griffin and a lion leaning against each other.

Painted on a gray background, the lower part of the cup is marked with a red and gold band molding punctuated with blue rosettes; the whole is bordered on one side by a frieze of acid green clovers, on the other by acanthus leaves with purple veins decorated with crooks and flowers of the same color. The foot, also with a gray background, is marked by a golden bow and base enhanced with cameo-style painted leaves.

Portraits to identify: Gérard de Nevers and Belle Euriant?

In this setting, as in sources before the mid-19th century, none of the characters are named. Only the 1826 inventory specifies that each side “represents a child”. In 1851, in the list of works intended for Trianon, the vases are very briefly described as “2 Gothic style porcelain vases” and there is a mention by another hand named “Agnès Sorel and Charles VII”. The successive inventories of Trianon, in 1855 and 1894, took up this name still in use today. However, we can only note the absence of French arms, numbers, or legends identifying the sovereign or his mistress. The coat of arms is pure fantasy.

Comparing the ornamental vocabulary of our vases with what we know about the second pair delivered in 1824 to the Duchess of Berry in Saint-Cloud would, perhaps, allow us to offer another reading. If these vases are no longer known today, the inventory of the Tuileries of 1826 describes them with a “soft lilac background with inscription of Gérard de Nevers the beautiful Euriant and his governess, and a coat of arms on the other side, blue handles and gold with scrolls and leaves, The other The Countess of Nevers, her Son and the beautiful Euriant; on the other side a coat of arms.” This decor takes up one of the themes of chivalric literature that has come back into fashion since the end of the 18th century. The History of Gérard de Nevers and the Beautiful Euriant his Friend was published in Paris by Tressan in 1792, illustrated with engravings after Moreau the Younger (1741-1814) (17). This courtly novel, also known as the Romance of the Violet, originally composed in verse by the poet Gerbert de Montreuil in the 1220s, was turned into prose in the 15th century. It tells of the thwarted loves of the noble knight Gérard (or Girart) of Nevers and the beautiful Euriant (or Euryanthe). The plot is based on a bet between the hero publicly claiming the exclusive love of his childhood friend and Liziard, Count of Forest, boasting of being able to seduce her. Thanks to the complicity of the old governess Gondrée, Lizard discovers the birthmark in the shape of a violet that Euriant carries under her breast and claims to have won her bet. The lovers are separated. After many adventures, the novel ends with a fight between the two rivals, from which Gérard emerges victorious. Eurian's innocence is demonstrated, the hero recovers his property, that of the traitor, and finally marries his sweetheart.

A note from Rumeau describes the figurative scenes in his vases more precisely: “[…] So for the 1st subject/ “Both had a charming voice, Euriant played the harp, Gérard plucked the guitar and wrote pretty verses. They received lessons together from a former troubadour and the Countess of Nevers attended their little concerts.”/2nd subject: / “Madame Gondrée, governess of Euriant, carried a tin bottle on her belt to put her holy water in, Gérard presented her with a pretty gold bottle and Euriant used her finest Venetian stitches to adjust her maid's high collar. […] ” (18) The first subject evoking the beginnings of the novel seems to correspond in all respects to the engraving after Moreau the Younger published in the 1792 edition, page 15. There we find the atmosphere of the ornamental decoration of our vases: Gothic arcades, Renaissance-inspired costumes, a harp for Euriant, and a guitar for Gérard. It is attractive to see it as an evocation of the first pages of the novel. The small violets emerging from the foliage at the base of the cups could be an allusion to this birthmark discovered by trickery. The helms, spears, and mottoes symbolize the final battle illustrated by another engraving, on page 205.

Thus, the figures inscribed in the medallions of the Trianon vases would not be the portraits of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel, but rather those of the “two children”, Gérard de Nevers and Euriant, making this pair the counterpart of that painted by Rumeau. After receiving delivery of the set in 1824, the Duchess of Berry kept only the most richly decorated pair in full ownership. The Duke of Orléans kept our vases for six years in his study, thereby showing a taste better known in his sister Marie, whose Gothic salon installed in 1835 in her apartment in the Tuileries is so representative. Although mentioned as “fractured handles” in 1851, the pair was considered remarkable enough to be sent to the Grand Trianon Museum and exhibited in the gallery.

Neither Rumeau's drawings nor the models of our vases have yet been found in the funds of the Sèvres factory. Their neo-Gothic decor nonetheless remains a fine example of the troubadour style developed in Sèvres during the Restoration, in particular under the pencil of Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard. If it is difficult to attribute authorship to him with certainty, unlike the very shape of the vases, a brief mention in the painters' works of 1824 could be a clue: on March 27, the painter Schilt was paid 600 francs for two “Fragonard Gothic vase Colored drawing based on the drawings of Mr Fragonard” (19).

1• The Decor of Life in the Romantic Era, 1820-1848, Paris, Pavillon de Marsan, 1930, cat. 1229, p. 161. (known as “Paris porcelain”) – Cathedrals, 1789-1914: a modern myth, Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2014, no. 134, p. 276, repr. p. 279. (dated around 1840) – Cau (E.), Le Style Troubadour, l’autre romanticisme, Paris, Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2017, p. 129-130, figs. 88. – Romantic Paris, 1815-1848, Paris, Petit Palais-musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, 2019, cat. 52, p. 64-65, repr. (dated 1827-1833).

2• National Archives (then AN) AJ 19 170, Inv. Tuileries 1833, f° 172, n° 2449.

3• AN AJ 19 633, Journal du Garde-Meuble [1836], vol. 10, fol° 241, n° 13722.

4• Archives of the Versailles Museum (later AMV), TE 25, Conservation of National Furniture.

Release Sheet No. 8 of April 9, 1851, No. 13722.

5• AMV, TE 16, Inv. Trianon 1855, n° 1379.

6• AMV, TE 23, Inv. Trianon 1894 B, n° 553.

7• Archives of Sèvres. Cité de la Céramique (later ASCC), Pb 5, Worksheet from 1823, Repairers and turners.

8• ASCC, Vv 1, Parts entered in the sales store, […], f° 215, sheet N° 23-13; f° 218, sheet N° 40-7; f° 231v°, sheet N° 10-41.

9• ASCC, Pb 5, sheet No. 23, Sheet of appreciation of the pieces entered into the sales store on April 16, 1824, No. 215-6.

10• ASCC, Pb 5, sheet No. 40, Sheet of appreciation of the pieces entered in the sales store on June 26, 1824, No. 218-6.

11• ASCC, Pb 6, sheet No. 10, Sheet of appreciation of the pieces entered in the sales store on March 5, 1825.

12• ASCC, Vtt, 1st series, p. 124, May 10, 1824; ASCC, Vbb 6, Presents, credit sales, June 19, 1824, f° 31v°.

13• The third pair will be delivered to Melle Labarchède on behalf of HRH the Duchess of Berry, on March 4, 1825. ASCC, Vbb 7, Presents, credit sales, 1825, f° 102 v°, N° 231-41.

14• AN AJ 19 720, Journal du Garde-Meuble 1827, f° 159, n° 15464 and 15465.

15• AN AJ 19 158, Inv. Tuileries 1826-1829, f° 21-22, n° 9076.

16• C. Samoyault-Verlet, “From the “cathedral” style to neo-Gothic furniture (according to the purchases of the royal family between 1815 and 1848)”, Mixtures Hubert Landais, Paris, Blanchard, 1987, p. 180.

17• Tressan, History of Gérard de Nevers and the beautiful Euriant his friend, ed. decorated with intaglio figures drawn by Moreau the younger, Paris, impr. Didot Young, 1792.

18• ASCC, Pb 5, Vases file, 1824, no. 19, a letter from Rumeau to “M. Gérard, painter at the Porcelain Manufacture, in Sèvres”.

19• ASCC, Vj’ 31, Journals of the works of Painters, 1824, f° 49.

The Taste of the Duchess of Berry

Arriving in Paris in 1816 to marry Charles-Ferdinand d'Artois, Duke of Berry (1778-1820), second son of the future Charles X (1757-1836), Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile (1798-1870) quickly became the darling of the Court. Young, lively, and endearing, she is one of the notable figures of the Restoration. Following the Duke's assassination, she left the Élysée Palace to occupy her husband's former apartment in the Tuileries, in the Marsan Pavilion. Always on the lookout for new things, she constantly renews her furnishings. Undoubtedly influenced by her friend the Countess of Osmond (1797-1853), whose Gothic cabinet created around 1817-1820 is known to us through a watercolor by Garneray (part. coll.) (A), she showed an early interest in the troubadour style. The vases preserved at Trianon are one of the rare testimonies of this. Placed in his billiards room in the Tuileries alongside the second pair in pendants, they were next to a Sèvres porcelain clock "Gothic genre, subject of Bayard in Brescia, movement by J.J. Lepaute", present from King Louis XVIII (1755- 1824) in January 1824. Five years later, the duchess confirmed this taste by organizing the famous “Marie Stuart Quadrille” during which participants had to recreate period costumes as faithfully as possible. The same year, she ordered from Sèvres the jewelry box in the shape of a Gothic shrine, bearing her image, designed by the ornamentalist Jean-Charles-François Leloy (1774-1846), today kept at the Louvre Museum (B).