A Ceremonial giltwood Armchair Delivered for Lucien Bonaparte

A Ceremonial Armchair Delivered for Lucien Bonaparte at the Hôtel de Brienne
Carved and gilded wood
Attributed to Jacob Frères
Paris, circa 1802–1803


The rear crosspiece is inscribed Lucien no. 2, and the seat frame bears a partially illegible delivery label, where the words "Grand salon…" can be faintly deciphered.

Provenance:
Supplied circa 1802 for Lucien Bonaparte (1775–1840), brother of Napoleon, at the Hôtel de Brienne
Collection of the Prince and Princess of Canino, Rome
Private French collection

Bibliography:
Jean-Pierre Samoyault, Mobilier français Consulat et Empire, Gourcuff, Paris, 2009, p. 50.
Jean-Pierre Samoyault, “L’Hôtel de Brienne, résidence de Lucien de 1801 à 1804,” in Lucien Bonaparte, un homme libre, exhibition catalogue, ed. Maria Teresa Caracciolo, Ajaccio, 2010.
Jean-Pierre Samoyault, “Les Bonaparte à Brienne,” in L’Hôtel de Brienne, pp. 71–107, Ministère de la Défense, Paris, 2012.


An important ceremonial armchair from the Consulate period, carved and gilded wood. The shield-shaped backrest has an inverted profile, the armrest supports take the form of chimeras with winged lion heads whose bodies end in a coiled horn, the front legs are carved as lion haunches, and the rear legs are sabre-shaped. Seat on a removable frame.

This armchair, of powerful and singular design, was part of an important ceremonial furniture ensemble delivered between 1801 and 1803 for the Hôtel de Brienne, the Parisian residence of Lucien Bonaparte, younger brother of Napoleon. Eight armchairs of this model remain at Brienne, as they were inventoried in the central grand salon of the Hôtel overlooking the gardens, first in a restoration report of 1814, then again in a second inventory of 1817 when the Hôtel de Brienne was assigned to the Ministry of War[1].


Context of the commission

Upon his return from his ambassadorship in Spain in 1801, Lucien, having amassed a considerable fortune from the King of Spain and his prime minister Godoy, first rented then purchased the Hôtel de Brienne on rue Saint-Dominique in 1802. He immediately launched a vast renovation campaign, completed in 1803, as attested by the German composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who described the arrangements after his visit as “of the highest refinement”[2].


Attribution to Jacob Frères (1796–1803)

Despite the absence of a stamp on the various pieces of this ensemble and the lack of surviving archives from the Hôtel de Brienne, the quality of execution and stylistic kinship with other creations of the Jacob Frères workshop support attribution to them. The dating of the renovations, coinciding with the active period of Jacob Frères (1796–1803), also argues in favor of this attribution.

The winged chimeras ending in a coiled tail recall those on numerous stamped Jacob Frères armchairs[3]. The dimensions of this armchair also closely resemble other giltwood seats by Jacob Frères, notably those supplied around 1800 for the Executive Directory palace[4]. Jacob Frères was the firm founded in 1796 by Georges Jacob’s two sons, Georges II Jacob (1768–1803) and François Honoré Georges Jacob-Desmalter (1770–1841).


After a design by Charles Percier

The design of this armchair, steeped in antique references, can be attributed to Charles Percier, one of the principal arbiters of decorative arts in France between 1790 and 1810, alongside his associate Léonard Fontaine. Several of its ornaments derive from sketches and studies made by Percier in Rome between 1786 and 1791, while he was a pensionnaire at the French Academy after winning the Grand Prix de Rome in architecture. The lion head profiles faithfully reproduce a drawing by Percier after an antique marble base in the Vatican. This motif also appears on semicircular seats made by Georges Jacob in the 1790s and by the Jacob Frères workshop. The winged chimera armrests also derive from Percier’s Roman sketchbooks: drawings at the Palazzo Barberini, studies at the Vatican, and a drawing of an antique seat preserved at San Pietro in Vincoli. These sheets, now at the Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, show how Percier’s Roman iconographic research directly fed the repertory of ornaments applied in Parisian workshops at the end of the 18th century and during the Consulate. They also informed Percier and Fontaine’s first major publications: Palais, maisons et autres édifices modernes, dessinés à Rome (Paris, 1798), Choix des plus célèbres maisons de plaisance de Rome et de ses environs (1809), and the Recueil de décorations intérieures (1801–1812).


Lucien Bonaparte’s exile and the circulation of this furniture

A member of the Tribunate, where he defended the Concordat with Pope Pius VII (1801) and secured the passage of the law establishing the Legion of Honour (1802), Senator (1802), and member of the Institut (1803), Lucien Bonaparte was destined to host official receptions at Brienne. But at the end of 1803, Lucien quarreled with his brother Napoleon, when the First Consul learned of his secret marriage to his former mistress Alexandrine de Bleschamps and his refusal to abandon her[5]. Lucien and his family were exiled to Rome in April 1804[6] and excluded from the honours and ceremonies of the coronation[7]. “Madame Mère” repurchased the Hôtel de Brienne and part of its contents for 600,000 francs, taking possession on December 19, 1804[8].
Lucien had a large part of his painting collection, along with some of the furniture commissioned for Brienne, transported to Rome, where he arrived on 6 May 1804[9]. This armchair very likely belonged to that portion of the furnishings that followed him and his family to Italy. The presence of this winged-lion furniture during Lucien’s Roman exile is attested by Ingres’s drawing[10] of 1815 at the Palazzo Nuñez on the Via Condotti, depicting the Princess of Canino, surrounded by her children, is seated on an identical armchair. Our example bears on the rear rail the inscription “Fauteuil Lucien No.2,” implying at minimum that it was once paired with a No.1[11].

In Rome, Lucien first stayed with his uncle Cardinal Fesch at the Palazzo Lancellotti. Then with the proceeds of the Brienne sale, he then purchased the Palazzo Nuñez, where he displayed his collections. The catalogue compiled in 1808 by Guattani listed 130 paintings across fifteen rooms[12].

He also acquired the Villa Ruffinella at Frascati in 1804, and in 1808 purchased from the Apostolic Chamber 8,000 hectares of the fief of Canino. Though he maintained close ties with the Holy See, his position was weakened during the French occupation of Rome and the annexation of the Papal States in May 1809, followed by the deportation of Pius VII. Napoleon ordered Lucien either to divorce his wife or go into exile in the United States, threatening arrest.

Forced to embark from Civitavecchia in 1810, he was captured by the British off Sardinia and held in England until the fall of the Empire in spring 1814. Thanks to Pius VII’s intervention he was allowed to return to Rome, where he was created Prince of Canino by a papal bull in August 1814. Briefly rallying to his brother during the Hundred Days, he was arrested by the Austrians in 1815 and placed under house arrest in Rome. Financial difficulties forced him to scale down his lifestyle and retire to his estates at Viterbo, Canino, and Musignano. He sold part of his painting collection in London in 1815[13], ceded the Palazzo Nuñez to his brother Jérôme, and sold his Villa Ruffinella at Frascati in 1820. In 1824 Pope Leo XII granted him the Roman title of Prince of Musignano, and in 1837 Gregory XVI created him Prince Bonaparte. He died in Viterbo on June 29, 1840. The Princess of Canino survived him by fifteen years, dying in Sinigaglia in 1855 during a cholera epidemic.


Conclusion
The trajectory of this armchair mirrors the turbulent fate of Lucien Bonaparte, emblematic figure of the Consulate, and of his furnishings, between Paris and Rome. A centerpiece in the staging of emerging power, it bears witness to the rise and fall of the Emperor’s brother. The forceful style of this seat—combining consular rigor with the fantasy of winged chimeras—embodies the art of ceremonial decoration at the dawn of the Empire. It also reflects the family fractures and thwarted ambitions that marked Lucien Bonaparte’s path. Moving from Parisian salons to Roman palaces, this armchair stands as a witness to the destiny of one of the most dramatic figures of the imperial family.