Tea at Trianon: Pierre Gouthière

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Pierre Gouthière

From Epoch Times:

The craftsmanship of chasing and gilding is a lengthy and complicated procedure (watch video below). Basically, Gouthière would create moulds after an architect’s drawn designs. After the moulds were cast, he would work on the surface of metals by hammering to create all of the textures of the designs, and then he would gild them.

Working like a sculptor and jeweler, Gouthière’s chasing and gilding skills were so high that his pieces sold at prices equal to, or higher than, paintings and sculptures by his contemporaries—Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher, Étienne Maurice Falconet. Auction houses would always mention Gouthière’s name when selling his neoclassical pieces—rarely the case for other decorative artists.

The neoclassical style of 18th century France, imbuing analytical restraint and moral clarity, can come across as rather cold. Gouthière’s pieces, in contrast, while also lofty and harmonious, are infused with warmth and vitality. (Read more.)