Folded Fruit Bowl 'Rousseau-Bracquemond' Service 1866-1875

About the Item

Extremely rare Japonism "Folded" Fruit Bowl from the famous service "Rousseau-Bracquemond", a similar folded fruit bowl is kept at the French Musée d'Orsay ( OAO1094). This piece belongs to this world-known service which is present in many museums such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Musée d'Orsay, Petit Palais Museum, Metropolitan NY Museum, and Occidental art Tokyo Museum and. Made in fine earthenware, the service has a blue combed decoration on the wing and drawings of animals after Japanese engravings by Felix Bracquemond inspired by Hokusaï. Here, the fruit bowl is decorated with butterflies, cicadas, bees, poppy flowers, and several birds. This combination of patterns is unique, typical of each piece from the Rousseau-Bracquemond service. Indeed, its mode of production was revolutionary: about 260 etchings were ordered by the merchant-publisher François-Eugène Rousseau to artist Félix Bracquemond and then the printing of the drawings in black, according to a ternary rhythm, was done in a random way on french Creil & Montereau faience pieces. The coloring was then hand-done freely by the workers, making each piece unique. As soon as it was presented at the World's Fair of 1867, this service met an unprecedented commercial success and was emblematic of the remarkable vogue for Japonism from the second half of the 19th century. This very special folded piece was produced between 1866 and 1875. It wears all the marks beneath, "Creil / LM&Cie / Montereau / Modèle / Rousseau / à / Paris".

Creator:

François-Eugène Rousseau (Maker),Creil et Montereau (Manufacturer),Félix Bracquemond (Artist)

Dimensions:

Height: 5.12 in (13 cm)Diameter: 10.44 in (26.5 cm)

Style:

Aesthetic Movement (In the Style Of)

Materials and Techniques:

Faience,Glazed

Place of Origin:

France

Period:

Late 19th Century

Date of Manufacture:

1866-1875

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Paris, FR

Reference Number:

Seller: AA03526/001stDibs: LU4694129607812

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Félix Bracquemond

Fe´lix Bracquemond was born in Paris. He was trained in early youth as a trade lithographer, until Guichard, a pupil of Ingres, took him to his studio. His portrait of his grandmother, painted by him at the age of nineteen, attracted The´ophile Gautier's attention at the Salon. He applied himself to engraving and etching about 1853, and played a leading and brilliant part in the revival of the etcher's art in France. Altogether he produced over eight hundred plates, comprising portraits, landscapes, scenes of contemporary life, and bird-studies, besides numerous interpretations of other artist's paintings, especially those of Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Gustave Moreau and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. After having been attached to the Se`vres porcelain factory in 1870, he accepted a post as art manager of the Paris atelier of the firm of Haviland of Limoges. He was connected by a link of firm friendship with E´douard Manet, James McNeill Whistler, and all the other fighters in the impressionist cause, and received all the honors that await the successful artist in France, including the grade of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1889. Bracquemond was a prominent figure in artistic and literary circles in the second half of the 19th century. He was close to writers such as Edmond de Goncourt and critic Gustave Geffroy, and numbered among his friends Millet and Corot, Henri Fantin-Latour, Degas and the Impressionist circle, and Auguste Rodin. He was one of the more prolific printmakers of his time and he was awarded the grande medaille d'honneur at the Universal Exhibition of 1900. He was also a painter, ceramist, and an innovator in decorative arts. Gabriel Weisberg called him the "molder of artistic taste in his time". Indeed, it was he who recognised the beauty of the Hokusai woodcuts used as packing around a shipment of Japanese china, a discovery which helped change the look of late 19th-century art. He married French Impressionist artist Marie Bracquemond in 1869. He died in Se`vres.