Important pair of fauteuils by Jean-Baptiste III Lelarge

Paris, Louis XVI period, circa 1785-1790.
Molded, carved and white-painted (original lacquer) beech.
STAMP : I.B.LELARGE, visible under the front crossbar of each fauteuil (twice for one of the two fauteuils).

Extremely rich, this pair of fauteuils, stamped I.B.LELARGE twice for one fauteuil, once for the second, alternates the power and rigor of its design, and the dazzling finesse of its sculpted repertoire and its painting. Each seat has an almost circular belt, slightly flared and with a rounded recess on the front with sculpted compartments with a heart-shaped frieze, interrupted by connecting "dices" decorated with rosettes. The whole rests on four tapered legs hollowed out with twelve grooves, which allows us to date these chairs from the end of the 1780s. Each leg is surmounted by a double molded ring, highlighting a wide plain band punctuated with a quarter-round molding, and is finished with a bulb-shaped shoe crowned with a ring. We can notice that the base of the rear feet, to ensure better balance, is significantly offset outwards. This arrangement was adopted by carpenters from the appearance of the convertible which had the effect of bringing the heads of the rear legs closer to the center of the seat, which would have made the seat unstable with almost vertical feet as in the seat "à la reine".

Slightly inclined and supported by two roughened "dices" of four grooves on the width and three on the depth, the backrest displays a significant border sculpted with a frieze of heart-raises enhanced at its external periphery with a molding united. The top of the latter draws a segmental arch in the middle, which extends beyond the head of the two small arcs placed in a curve and forms the covering of the molding and the frieze previously described. The uprights form a continuous curve with the armrests garnished with cuffs at the ends ending in a scroll highlighted with a large acanthus leaf. Concave in shape, the armrest supports, located back from the front legs also highlighted at the base by large acanthus leaves, are very richly carved on the front with a central pearl net. Below, four-fluted triglyphs surmount the connecting "dice". The entire structure is surrounded by a molding body.

An exceptional phenomenon, we observe on the two seats that the four crosspieces of the belt have been elegized, that is to say reduced in thickness at the level of the internal face of the belt to lighten the weight. This is a characteristic of the works of Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené (1748-1803) and Georges Jacob (1739-1814), and the mark of a careful quality of finish. Only art historians such as Pierre Kielberg or Sylvie Legrand-Rossi seem unanimous on the question : this practice was invented by Jacob, whom only Sené took up. However, Kielberg acknowledges that "Lelarge’s seats sometimes evoked the art of Jacob and Sené. Despite being able to match the creative genius of these colleagues, Jean-Baptiste III Lelarge nonetheless remains one of the best carpenters of seats under the reign of Louis XVI." Furthermore, no Louis XVI period seat made by Lelarge presents this technique. We can therefore put forward the hypothesis, given the fact that Sené and Lelarge both had their workshops on rue de Cléry, that the second obtained professional recognition from the first and that the latter taught him this technique.

JEAN-BAPTISTE III LELARGE
Born in 1743, Jean-Baptiste III Lelarge belonged to the third generation of a dynasty of Parisian carpenters all bearing the same first name. He completed his apprenticeship in the family workshop and succeeded his father after receiving his master's degree in 1775. Neoclassical in style, his works were often of the first order : the purity of the lines, the accuracy of the proportions, the grace and harmony all the details demonstrate the care that this master took in the study and execution of the models. He therefore received important orders from a rich French and foreign clientele, among whom we find in particular the King of Portugal Pedro III (1717-1786). His creations, for the most part, demonstrated an undeniable elegance : robust, without heaviness, rigorously constructed, perfectly assembled, adorned with perfectly distributed sculptures and without excess.
His business survived the Revolution and he resumed some activity until his death in 1802.

LITERATURE : Pierre Arizzoli-Cémentel, Le Mobilier de Versailles XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles Tome 2, Dijon, Édition Faton, 2002 ; Pierre Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, Les Éditions de l’Amateur, 2008 ; Sylvie Legrand-Rossi, Le Mobilier du musée Nissim de Camondo, Dijon, Éditions Faton, 2012.

Very good general condition, usual restorations and maintenance.