Louis XV style

The chief architect of the King was Jacques Gabriel from 1734 until 1742, and then his more famous son, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, until the end of the reign. His major works included the Ecole Militaire, the ensemble of buildings overlooking the Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde; 1761–1770), and the Petit Trianon at Versailles (1764). Over the course of the reign of Louis XV, while interiors were lavishly decorated, the façades gradually became simpler, less ornamented and more classical. The façades designed by Gabriel were carefully rhymed and balanced by rows of windows and columns, and, on large buildings like the Place de la Concorde, often featured grand arcades on the street level, and classical pediments or balustrades on the roofline. Ornamental features sometimes included curving wrought-iron balconies with undulating rocaille designs, similar to the rocaille decoration of the interiors.Ducher (1988) p. 140

The religious architecture of the period was also sober and monumental, and it tended, at the end of the reign, toward the neoclassical. Major examples include the Church of Saint-Genevieve (now the Panthéon), built from 1758 to 1790 to a design by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, and the Église Saint-Philippe-du-Roule (1765–1777) by Jean Chalgrin, which featured an enormous barrel-vaulted nave.Ducher (1988) p. 140

File:Hôtel de la Marine.jpg|Hôtel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde (1761–1770)

File:West facade of Petit Trianon 002.JPG|Petit Trianon (1764)

File:Eglise St Philippe du Roule - Intérieur.jpg|Interior of Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, Paris (1765–1770)

Interior decoration during the reign of Louis XV fell into two periods; the first especially featured rocaille ornament, sculpted sinuous curves and counter-curves, often in floral and vegetative patterns, applied to the panels of the walls, often with medallions in the center. The panels large mirrors were framed in often framed with sculpted palm leaves or other floral decoration. Unlike the rococo style, the ornament was usually restrained, symmetrical and balanced. In the early period of the style, the designs were often inspired by French versions of Chinese art, animals, especially monkeys (Singerie) and arabesques, or themes taken from works of the artists of the period, including Jean Bérain the Younger, Watteau and Jean Audran.Ducher (1988) pg. 142

After 1750, in reaction to the excesses of the earlier style, the designs and moldings on the interior walls were white or pale colored, more geometric, decorated with sculpted garlands, roses, and crowns, and ornamented with designs inspired by ancient Greece and Rome. This style was found in the Salon de Compagnie at the Petit Trianon, and it was the predecessor of the Louis XVI style.Ducher (1988) pg. 142–143

File:Parigi, Hôtel de Soubise (6).JPG|Chamber of the Prince, Hôtel de Soubise (1735–1740)

File:Hôtel de Rohan- cabinet des singes.jpg|Hôtel de Rohan, the Cabinet des Singes, with whimsical pictures of monkeys

File:Départ de la rampe de l'escalier intérieur du Petit Trianon.jpg|Beginning of the interior stairway at the Petit Trianon (1764)

File:Salon du petit trianon Appliques de Thomire.JPG|Salon de Compagnie of the Petit Trianon (1765)

{{Main|Louis XV furniture}}

The chairs of the Louis XV style, compared with those of Louis XIV, were characterized by lightness, comfort and harmony of lines. The traverse support of the legs disappeared, and the chairs were designed so one could sit back comfortably. The legs had a curving 'S shape. The carved decor featured sculpted fleurettes, palmettes, seashells, and foliage. The dossier, or back of the chair, was violones, slightly curved like a violin. Several new variants of chairs appeared including the bergere, with stuffed upholstered arms, A confessional, with upholstered and padded arms; the Marquise, a bergere seating two persons, with a low back, and short arms.Ducher (1988) pg. 144

The console table was a table designed to be placed against a wall, usually used for displaying art objects; it was almost always in the rocaille style, with undulating curves, modeled after seashells and foliage. very sinuous, twisting rocaille modeled after seashells and foliage.

The commode was a new type of furniture which had first appeared late in the reign of Louis XIV. It was a chest drawers resting on four S-shaped legs. It usually featured gilded bronze ornament, but during the reign of Louis XV, it was also covered with plaques of exotic woods of different colors in geometric patterns or floral shapes. A particular variation, called the façon de Chine or "Chinese fashion" emerged, which contrasted the gilded bronze against black lacquered wood. A large number of skilled ébénistes from around Europe were employed to fine wood Commodes and other furniture for the King. They included Jean-François Oeben, Roger Vandercruse Lacroix, Gilles Joubert, Antoine Gaudreau, and Martin Carlin.Ducher (1988) pg. 144

A variety of other new types of furniture appeared, including the chiffonier, a cabinet with five drawers, and the table de toilette, a kind of desk-table with three shutters, the central one having a mirror.Ducher (1988) pg. 144

Later in the reign of Louis XV, between 1755 and 1760, tastes in furniture began to change. The rocaille designs became more discreet and restrained, and the influence of antiquity and neo-classicism began to appear in new designs of furniture. The Commodes became to have more geometric forms; the decoration turned from rocaille to geometric forms, garlands of oak leaves, flowers and classical motifs. A new type of tall cabinet, the Cartonnier, made its appearance between 1760 and 1765. It took its inspiration from Greek mythology and architecture, with friezes, vaulting, sculpted trophies, bronze lion heads, and other classic, elements.Ducher (1988) pg. 146–147

File:Bureau du Roi vue de face avec pièce.jpg|King's desk at Palace of Versailles (1760–1769)

File:Coffre à bijoux Marie Antoinette Dauphine Martin Carlin V5807.jpg|Jewel box of the Dauphine Marie Antoinette (1770)

File:Duchesse brisée de l'hôtel de Vallemaré-Dangé (Louvre, OA 6493).jpg|Louis XV salon with Duchesse divided seat (Louvre)

File:Chaussy (95), domaine de Villarceaux, grand salon, console Rocaille, ép. Louis XV.JPG|Rocaille console at the Domaine of Villarceaux

File:Château de Versailles, appartement du Dauphin, bibliothèque, commode, Mathieu Criaerd.jpg|Commode by Antoine Gaudreau in the apartment of the Dauphin at Versailles (1745)

File:Fauteuil Sarry 783.JPG|Louis XV armchair with Beauvais tapestry

File:Settee (part of a set) MET DP221524.jpg|Settee, Metropolitan Museum of Art, (1754–56)

File:Commode.jpg|Lacquered Commode, by Bernard II van Risamburgh, Victoria and Albert Museum (1750–1760)

The dominant subjects of painting in the early reign of Louis XV were mythology and history, the same as those of Louis XIV. Later in the reign, when Louis began to construct new apartments within the palaces of Versailles and Fontainebleau, his tastes turned more to pastoral scenes and genre painting. Madame de Pompadour, the king's mistress, was also one of the major patrons of the artists of the period.Guéganic (2008)

The most favored artist of the King was François Boucher, He produced for the King art of every description; religious paintings, genre scenes, landscapes, pastorals, and exotic scenes, frequently featuring gatherings of cheerful and seductive nudes. As the king's other great passion was hunting, he painted Leopard hunt (1765) and Crocodile hunt (1767) for the King's new apartments at Versailles. In 1767, near the end of the career, he was named First Painter of the King.Guéganic (2008) pg. 76

Other notable painters included Jean Baptiste Oudry, whose hunting scenes decorated royal apartments in Versailles, and were made into tapestries and popular engravings; the portrait artists Maurice Quentin de la Tour and Jean-Marc Nattier, who made portraits for the royal family and aristocracy; and the genre painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.Guéganic (2008) pg. 76–77

File:Jean-Marc Nattier, Madame de Pompadour en Diane (1746).jpg|Madame de Pompadour as Diane the Huntress, by Jean-Marc Nattier (1746)

File:Jean-Baptiste Oudry 001.jpg|Wolf hunt in the forest by Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1748)

File:Maurice Quentin de La Tour - Marquise de Pompadour - WGA12359.jpg|Madame de Pompadour by Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1755)

File:La pêche à la ligne-François Boucher.jpg|Fishing by François Boucher, Grand Trianon, (1757)

File:Attributs musique civile musée louvre.jpg|Attributes of civil music by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, the Louvre (1757)

The sculptural styles of the Grand Siécle of Louis XIV continued to dominate during most of the reign of Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was a particularly enthusiastic patroness of sculpture, and many busts and statues were made of her or commissioned by her. The most prominent sculptors of the early period were the Guillaume Coustou the Younger and his brother, Guillaume Coustou the Elder, Robert Le Lorrain, and Edmé Bouchardon. Bouchardon created the equestrian statue of Louis XV for the center of the new Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde) which was modeled after that of Louis XIV in the Place Louis le Grand (now Place Vendôme) by François Girardon. After the death of Bouchardon, the statue was finished by another major monumentalist of the period, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In the later part of the reign of Louis XV, sculptors began to give greater attention to the faces; the leaders of this new style were Jean-Antoine Houdon noted for his busts of celebrated authors and statesmen, and Augustin Pajou, who made notable portrait busts of the natural scientist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and Madame du Barry. Sculpture began to reach a larger popular audience during this period, thanks to reproductions made from terra cotta and unglazed porcelain.Guéganic (2008) page 77

File:Marly horse Louvre MR1802.jpg|Marly Horses by Guillaume Coustou the Elder, the Louvre (1739–1745)

File:Louis XV Coustou Louvre MR1811.jpg|Louis XV as Jupiter by Coustou, the Louvre

File:Marie Leszczynska Coustou Louvre MR1813.jpg|Queen Marie Leszczyńska as Pomone, by Coustou, the Louvre

File:Cupid by Edme Bouchardon, 1744, marble - National Gallery of Art, Washington - DSC09968.JPG|Edmé Bouchardon, Cupid making his bow from the club of Hercules, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (1744)

File:Mercury Pigalle Louvre RF3023.jpg|Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Mercury lacing his winged sandals the Louvre (1745)

File:French architects and sculptors of the XVIIIth century (1900) (14578206667).jpg|Design by Edmé Bouchardon for statue of the King on Place Louis XV (destroyed)

File:Neptune - Pajou-Augustin (droit).jpg|Neptune by Augustin Pajou Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (1767)

File:Madame du Barry (1746–1793) MET ES4280.jpg|Madame du Barry by Augustin Pajou, the Louvre (1755)

In the later years of his reign, Louis constructed a major new square in the center of the city, Place Louis XV (now the Place de la Concorde), with a harmonious row of new buildings, designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. He built other monumental squares in the centers of Rennes and Bordeaux. He also constructed one monumental fountain in Paris, the Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons, with statuary by Edmé Bouchardon; but it was poorly sited on a narrow street, and while it had an abundance of sculpture, because of the antiquated water supply of Paris, it produced very little water. The fountain was criticized by Voltaire in a letter to Anne Claude de Caylus in 1739, while it was still under construction:

{{quote|I have no doubt that Bouchardon will make of this fountain a fine piece of architecture; but what kind of fountain has only two faucets where the water porters will come to fill their buckets? This isn't the way fountains are built in Rome to beautify the city. We need to lift ourselves out of taste that is gross and shabby. Fountains should be built in public places, and viewed from all the gates. There isn't a single public place in the vast faubourg Saint-Germain; that makes my blood boil. Paris is like the statue of Nabuchodonosor, partly made of gold and partly made of muck.Letter from Voltaire to Caylus, extract published in A. Roserot (1902), cited in Paris et ses fontaines de la Renaissance à nos jours, from the Collection Paris et son Patrimoine, directed by Béatrice de Andia, Délégué Général à l'Action artistique de la Ville de Paris, 1998. collection of texts on the history of Paris fountains.)Translation by D.R Siefkin.}}

File:Place Louis XV - Projet de Gabriel.JPG|Design for the Place Louis XV by Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1758)

File:4 saisons vue d'ensembleG.jpg|Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons (1739–1745)

File:Place de la bourse, Bordeaux.jpg|Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux by Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1730–1775)

• Louis period styles
• Neoclassicism in France
• {{ill|Liège–Aachen Baroque furniture|de|Aachen-Lütticher Möbelstil}}
• {{ill|Baroque in Prince-Bishopric of Liège|nl|Barok in het prinsbisdom Luik}}

{{Reflist}}

• Ducher, Robert, ''Caractéristique des Styles, (1988), Flammarion, Paris (In French); {{ISBN|2-08-011539-1}}
• Paris et ses fontaines de la Renaissance à nos jours, from the Collection Paris et son Patrimoine, directed by Béatrice de Andia, Délégué Général à l'Action artistique de la Ville de Paris, 1998.
• Louis XV style. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2 May 2008, from [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9049092 Encyclopædia Britannica Online]

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