The Middle Ages

In medieval times France was ruled by feudal lords and most ordinary people had pretty grim lives. The lived, ate and slept together in one large room, which was often cold and damp, and shared with their animals.

What furniture there was had to be practical: large simple benches, stools and chests, made of heavy oak to discourage thieves. Cloth or tapestries insulated cold walls and there was always a hearth fire; light was provided by torches or primitive lamps. There may have been a recess or bower containing a bed and chest.

Lords’ castles didn’t fare much better, just great hall trestle tables and rough benches. These contrasted with the seigneurial chair, which sometimes had a gilded canopy.

The chest (also called a bahut, coffre or huche) was very important, as it was used to contain valuables, whether linen, jewels, arms, grain or salt. Designed to be moved from place to place, they were used as a seat by day, bed by night (with cushions) and as tables.

Early furniture followed the lines of architecture. Few pieces were carved, just those crafted to show off wealth or for special occasions, such as for a dowry. Carving reflected that of churches and cathedrals.
Towards the end of the Middle Ages decoration featured more on chests and chairs. Architecture was going through the Gothic stage and furniture reflected this. Carving became heavier and more complex, featuring animals and grotesque heads. Beds were enclosed (lit clos), often with carved or latticed walls. The cupboard was introduced, also often decorated.

Gothic architecture was at its best in the 13th and 14th centuries, turning to Flamboyant Gothic in the 15th century. The transition between Gothic and Renaissance occurred in this latter period.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance brought a whole new attitude to the arts. Renaissance actually means "revival", and refers more to a spirit of individuality than a particular style. It started in Italy, reaching its height in the 15th century. After the French seized Milan under Louis XII and saw the city’s magnificent court, they took home Italian ideas and craftsmen.

The French Renaissance came into its own in 1515, when Frances I took the throne. A patron of the arts, he invited Andrea del Sarto and Leonardo da Vinci to France. By the early 16th century French designers were producing important work and in 1550 Jacques Androuet Ducerceau published a series of influential furniture designs.

Gothic art was firmly rooted in France, so the Renaissance style took a while to filter through. Gothic and Renaissance designs were often placed side by side, in panels and furniture.

French ornamental woodwork tended to be lighter and more delicate than the Italian style, with more floral forms. After various Greek and Roman antiquities were unearthed, interest was sparked in the classicism of the past. French craftsmen created furniture with deeply carved ornate designs. They copied the symmetrical appearance of classic architecture – buffets and cabinets resembled small buildings with columns, balustrades, windows and panels, reminiscent of Roman and Greek temples and colosseums. Furniture often featured ornamentation inspired by Michelangelo and Raphael, or depicted mythological or biblical themes.

In general furniture was becoming lighter and new items were introduced. Tables took on finer lines and perhaps carving, cabinets and chests of drawers replaced chests and cupboards, and clocks, mirrors and screens became more commonplace.

Renaissance palaces were really luxurious, with carved or gilded woodwork panels and ornate tapestries and paintings.

The time and effort spent by medieval craftsmen on chests was now transferred to the cabinets of the Renaissance – these offered more scope for artistic work than beds, chairs or tables.

Oak was mainly used, but woods such as walnut were also introduced. Although plentiful in France walnut is not easily carved, so panelling and marquetry featured.
The Renaissance reached its height during the reign of Henri II – the Henri II era lasted about 75 years. Furniture was large and solid, square or rectangular. Pieces were well carved or sculpted, sometimes with barley, twisted or fluted columns. Chair legs were straight, often turned, and sometimes cushions were tied on to seats. Cabinets had an architectural style. Henri’s marriage to Catherine de Medici continued the Italian influence.

By Henri IV’s reign, however, furniture decoration had become rather superfluous.

Louis XIII

When Henri IV was assassinated in 1610, his successor Louis XIII was too young to rule so Marie de Medici and later Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin became Regents. Marie de Medici invited Rubens to Paris bringing a Flemish influence, but he had studied in Italy and there were still many Italian craftsmen in France, so the Italian influence continued.
Louis XIII furniture featured massive, solid construction with geometric carving. Furniture design was more opulent than during the Renaissance.

Cherubs, scrolls, fruit, flowers and foliage were common decorative themes. Lathe-turning and moulding techniques also influenced appearance.

The emerging middle class fuelled the demand for furniture. For the first time people expected furniture to be comfortable as well as beautiful, and fixed upholstery was one of the great inventions of this period. Leather, tapestries and fine fabrics were nailed directly to the chair’s wooden framework; seats and backs were padded.

The principal pieces of furniture included tall cupboards, full dressers, cabinets and buffets with carved doors and mouldings. Ebony was a commonly used carving material.

The Os de Mouton chair is the most notable example of the era, with legs shaped like those of a lamb. The lit-de-repose or chaise longue was also introduced, a "chair" about six feet long, with or without arms, with a mattress and bolster. Beds were very important as ladies often held receptions in their bedrooms – the king and queen gave audiences to their subjects while in bed. Beds had canopies and curtains, and were covered with tapestries, silk, satin, velvet, embroidery and lace.

Cabinets and presses were large, sometimes divided into two. Tables were carved and gilded, often ornamented with bronze and copper. The cartouche was much used (a kind of nameplate consisting of hieroglyphic symbols enclosed in a loop). When rectangles were used, they were always broader than they were high. Carved and gilded mirrors were introduced by the Italians, as were sconces and chandeliers. It was the time of great opulence.

Many middle class people wanted nice furniture but didn’t live in Paris, hence the French country look began. Rustic pieces reflected city styles, but were made for a more relaxed rural life, such as the trestle table with thick plateau top and graceful legs.

Louis XIV

Louis XIV – the Sun King – ruled from 1643 to 1715, the longest reign of any European monarch. Also known as ‘Le Grand Monarque’, he proposed absolute monarchy and declared himself the Church and the State. His ideal was splendour, and he imposed his will and taste on France, encouraging great men of the intellectual and arts worlds. The Palace of Versailles is a testament to his love of the arts and luxury. The aristocracy mirrored the king’s excesses. The Louis XIV style is also called baroque.

Louis and his government set up the ‘Manufacture des meubles de la Couronne’, known as ‘Manufacture des Gobelins’. Artists of all kinds were given apartments in the Louvre, with departments dedicated to decorative arts such as architecture, cabinet making, tapestry, painting, jewellery and gardens, to furnish the royal palaces. The king’s maître ébéniste (chief cabinetmaker), André Charles Boulle, developed marquetry juxtaposing veneers of ebony, brass, tortoiseshell, ivory, pewter and mother of pearl, a technique to which he gave his name. His beautiful cabinets, commodes, tables and clocks are not almost priceless. The majority of Boulle work that has survived was actually made in Victorian times or later.
Charles Lebrun is another notable furniture designer of the time.

New designs included the bureau plat (writing table) and finely ornamented commode (chest of drawers) which became one of the most important furniture types of the 18th century. The mid-17th century also saw the introduction of the ‘cabinet-on-stand’ throughout Europe.

Louis’s palaces provided a social setting suited to the extravagant lifestyle of the nobility. The finest materials were used and furniture is characterised by intricate marquetry, elaborate carving, gilding, inlaying, lacquer, gold leaf decorations of scalloped shells, lions’ heads, dolphins, laurels and, of course, the sun and its rays. Tapestries were equally elaborate. Chairs and settees were richly coloured and upholstered.

French court furniture was built for grandeur rather than comfort. Only the king was allowed to sit in a fauteuil (armchair) so stools and benches covered in velvet, damask, gold brocade and embroidered silk were common.

All aspects of a room were designed to complement each other. Gobelin tapestries made in Paris and carpets from Aubusson and Beauvais added splendour. Ceilings and walls were adorned with frescoes or carved and gilded woodwork and panelling called boiseries. Everything had to be beautiful, right down to the window-locks and doorknobs.

After the Trianon de Porcelaine at Versailles was built for one of Louis XIV’s mistresses, there was an increasing fascination with the Far East. Demand for all things Asian – from silk screens to lacquered cabinets – soon outstripped supply, so French craftsmen copied these pieces adding flourishes of their own. This created the foundation for the style known as chinoiserie.

Women were becoming more important and a definite femine influence can bee seen in the Louis XIV furniture style, although this only reached full expression in the later reign of Louis XV.

The Louise XIV era was the foundation of the styles that flowed. Indeed, many people look on the periods of Louis XIV, the Regency, Louise XV and Louis XVI as one great period with variations.

Regence

When Louis XIV died in 1715, his five year old great-grandson, whose parents and brother had passed away, became Louise XV. As he was too young to take the throne, his uncle Philippe, the Duke of Orleans, was appointed Regent until the king attained legal majority in 1723. The transitional period between the opulent baroque period and less formal rococo era of Louis XV became known as French Regence (or Regency).

Offended by the pageantry of Versailles, the duke moved the royal court to Paris where courtiers lived in less extraveant hotel particuliers or private residences. He employed architect and decorator Gilles Marie Oppenord and cabinetmaker Charles Cressent on the interiors of the Palais Royal, his Paris residence. They created the Regence style.

Intimate petit salons introduced an era of lighter, more graceful furniture. Craftsmen moved away from the rigid classical styling imposed on them by Louis XIV. Asymmetrical curved lines replaced symmetrical straight lines. Where they retained their symmetry they became more fluid. Plain wood veneer replaced boulle marquetry. Inspiration was taken from mythological themes and the Orient, flowers, shells and dragons.

The cabriole leg made its debut in sofas and chairs of the period, as well as on armoires, bookcases and writing desks. Chairs were narrower with deeper seats, and cane was introduced. Master cabinetmakers developed the commode, and with its curved chest and plump sides, the ‘bombe’, or convex commode, appeared. Foliage and delicate bouquets wrapped with ribbons and bows adorned the upper sections of armoires. Beautiful wall panelling with curved corners also became a hallmark of the Regence era.

Louis XV

The Regence pointed the way for the gentler rococo period (1730 to 1760) when Louis XV and his official mistress (maitresse en titre) Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame de Pompadour, influenced the decorative arts.

Furniture was becoming more ornately decorated and daintier, more feminine and graceful. Rosewood and fruit woods replaced darker woods. Whereas the baroque style favoured symmetry, rococo embraced the asymmetry born in the Regence era.

Extravagant wood veneers and marquetry featured, along with carved metal ornament and gilt bronze. Wood was often painted, enamelled, gilded and carved. Lacquers were important, especially oriental lacquers and anything done by the Martin brothers.

The rococo style featured love, humour, music and nature-inspired motifs and themes, including shells, rocks, fish, waves, birds, foliage, vines, flowers, seaweed, rocks and serpents, plus farming motifs like corn and wheat. Ribbons with streamers and hearts were also fashionable. This showy look worked well in the grand rooms for which it was designed.

Regarded by many as the Golden Age of French furniture Louis XV’s reign was a time of peace and prosperity. The Siecle des Lumieres (Age of Enlightenment) embraced intellectual salons and debate. Women became more powerful and their influence was felt in court and in furniture design.

Although public reception rooms were still grand, family apartments were less formal and strong colours were replaced with the pastels favoured by Madame de Pompadour. Furniture was comfortable as well as stylish.

Louis XV sought inviting chairs and furniture arrangements suited to conversation. The King’s menuisier (chairmaker), Jean-Baptiste Tilliard, made a low, curved armchair with an exposed wood frame, far lighter and less regal looking than earlier chairs. A basket of flowers was carved on the seat rail, and shells and scrolls on the back, showing the chair was meant to be moved about for impromptu use (rather than to be pushed up against the wall).

Parisian chairmakers adopted Tilliards bergere chair designs. Frames were sometimes gilded or painted. Upholstered arms were moved back from the length of the seat to avoid crushing fashionable crinolines. Rich damasks and velvets were favoured for upholstery, along with Gobelin, Aubusson and Beauvais tapestry. Cane chairs with loose seat cushions were popular too.
By the second quarter of the century, Parisian homes had crystal chandeliers, and marble mantels with large mirror panels or painted overmantels called trumeaus. Wood floors were arranged in marquetry or parquet patterns, then laid with Aubusson or Savonnerie rugs.

New pieces to emerge during this period included the fauteuil (armchair), bergere (easy chair), secretaire-a-abattant (fall-front writing desk), table-a-ecrire (writing table), and bureau-a-cylindre (cylinder-top desk).
Noted furniture designers included Charles Cressent, Bernard Vanrisamburgh, Jean-Baptiste Tilliard and Nicolas Heurtaut.

Towards the end of the Louis XV period, furniture became perhaps too decadently rococo, with curves everywhere, no symmetry and lavish decoration.