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Period: 18th Century
Historical 18cen. Antique French Aubusson Tapestry 252x287cm Wool&Silk Isaac 8x9
Located in New York, NY
This antique French Aubusson tapestry features a vivid biblical depiction of Isaac, set within lush landscapes and executed in wool and silk. Its elegant coloration, craftsmanship, a...
Category
French French Provincial Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Royal Aubusson Manufactury Tapestry 18th – After Jean-Baptis Oudry - N 1570
By Royal Manufacture of Aubusson, Jean-Baptiste Oudry
Located in Paris, FR
An Exceptional and Important french Tapestry from Royal Aubusson Manufactury the Tapestry in France , 18th Century – After Jean-Baptiste Oudry No. 1570
Period: 18th century
Conditio...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Monumental 18th Century Aubusson Verdure Tapestry
Located in Miami, FL
Monumental 18th Century Aubusson Verdure Tapestry
From the historical residence Chateau de Nernier, situated on the French side of Lake Geneva:
A magnificent French verdure tapestry, woven in wool and silk at the renowned Aubusson workshops in the early 18th century. This richly detailed piece features a lush woodland landscape with delicate architectural elements and meandering waterways inhabited by elegant wading birds. The composition is framed by an intricately woven floral border that enhances the tapestry’s pastoral...
Category
French Baroque Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
SHAHKAR Antique 19th Century French Aubusson Floral Tapestry Lumbar Pillow
Located in New York, NY
This is absolutely lovely antique 19th century French Aubusson Tapestry pillow with flowers with a velour backing. It measures: 15 x 12 inches.
Excellent condition.
Complimentary S...
Category
Dutch Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry, Wool, Silk
18th Century French Aubusson Verdure Tapestry
Located in Winter Park, FL
An 18th century French Aubusson handwoven wool verdure tapestry. Beautifully detailed scenic landscape in shades of brown, blue and green. Wooded foliage surround a pair of swans and...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
French Greenery Tapestry by AUBUSSON manufactury 18th - 348Lx216 - N° 1597
Located in Paris, FR
This magnificent tapestry has undergone a thorough cleaning, hand-lined with 100% linen fabric, and meticulous inspection by our experts in our workshop. It is now ready to grace you...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Swans Ducks 18th Century Aubusson French Tapestry Panel
Located in New York, NY
Late 18th century Aubusson tapestry panel made in France. Measures: Height 9 feet 4 inches, width 7 feet 11 inches.
Swans and ducks swimming in a lake...
Category
French French Provincial Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
18th Century French Aubusson Tapestry
Located in New York, US
Gorgeous and massive 17th century tapestry. Silk and wool - in the style of Aubusson.
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Vertical 18th Century Flemish Verdure Tapestry
Located in Miami, FL
Vertical 18th Century Flemish Verdure Tapestry
Wool and silk tapestry verdure scenery depicting a peaceful scenery with lush trees and vegetation, hamlet scenery.
Vivid colors and gr...
Category
Belgian Baroque Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Tapestry. Wool, silk. Possibly Aubusson, France, 18th century.
Located in Madrid, ES
Tapestry. Wool, silk. Possibly Aubusson, France, 18th century.
It has been restored. No signature or noticeable marks.
An antique tapestry with a frame in ochre, red, and other ton...
Category
European Other Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Other
SHAHKAR Antique 19th Century French Aubusson Floral Tapestry Lumbar Pillow
Located in New York, NY
This is absolutely lovely antique 19th century French Aubusson Tapestry pillow with flowers with a velour backing. It measures: 15 x 19 inches.
Excellent condition.
Complimentary S...
Category
Dutch Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry, Wool, Silk
Louis XIV Style Antique French Aubusson Verdure Tapestry, Venus and Adonis
Located in Dallas, TX
Mid-18th Century Antique French Aubusson Verdure Tapestry, Venus and Adonis Wall Hanging 13'09 x 09'05. A rare jewel from the heart of 18th-century France, this handwoven wool and silk Aubusson verdure tapestry offers more than aesthetic beauty—it is a portal to a bygone era of aristocratic grandeur and mythological reverence. Woven by master artisans whose skill and devotion were reserved for the noble elite, this extraordinary tapestry captures the romantic tragedy of Venus and Adonis in a style that pays homage to the great Italian Baroque painters—Francesco Albani...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
$52,499 Sale Price
25% Off
1077 - 18th Century Tapestry Aubusson Workshop
Located in Paris, FR
1077 - 18th century tapestry from the Aubusson Manufacture.
Representation The Capture Of Birds
Perfect state of conservation.
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
A Rare 18th Century Middle Eastern Silk and Silver Thread Green Velvet Tapestry
Located in Queens, NY
A Rare 18th Century Middle Eastern Silk and Silver Thread Green Velvet Tapestry.
Presenting a rare and exceptional find, this 18th-century Middle Eastern silk and silver thread gree...
Category
Asian Islamic Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Silk, Velvet
$111,000 Sale Price
40% Off
Antique 18th Century Brussels Tapestry 8
X 7
7"
Located in Los Angeles, US
A wall hanging tapestry, simply put, is a textile specifically designed and woven to portray an artistic scene with the intent of hanging it on a wall. Antique tapestries, those that...
Category
Unknown Other Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Cotton
18th Century Italian Silk
Silver Metallic Thread Lampas Brocade Panel
Located in Rochester, NY
An exceptional and fine hand woven 18th century Italian silk and silver metallic thread lampas brocade panel with beautiful aged original color. Red silk backing w/ attached strip of...
Category
Italian Renaissance Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Metallic Thread
18th Century French Verdure Tapestry 6
10" x 9
6"
Located in New York, NY
Gorgeous 18th Antique Century Silk & Wool French Verdure Tapestry, Country of origin: France, Circa date: 18th Century
Category
French Baroque Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Antique Verdure Tapestry
Located in Scottsdale, AZ
This wonderful antique heirloom Verdure tapestry is a true work of art, beautifully handwoven to depict a serene nature scene. The design showcases lush foliage, towering trees, and ...
Category
European Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry, Wool, Silk
$15,000
Very large 1700
s Aubusson Verdure Tapestry
Located in LYON, FR
Very large Aubusson Tapersty Circa 1720's.
‘Verdure’ (foliage) tapestries were woven throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries, featuring wooded landscapes, reflecting the interest in b...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Fine and Rare Pastoral Aubusson Tapestry, France 18th Century
Located in LA CIOTAT, FR
This exquisite rare 18th-century Aubusson tapestry beautifully captures the refined elegance and pastoral charm associated with the Louis XV period. Masterfully woven, it depicts a r...
Category
French Louis XV Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Zabihi Collection Mid 18th Century French Tapestry of Charlemagne
Located in New York, NY
Beauvais, France. Depicts arrival at a castle, royal horse being heralded by trumpeter and escorted by two guards, continuous floral border and two minor borders. Linen and wool slit weave Beauvais technique with natural indigo, weld, walnut husk, tannin variegated, lichen and moss greens. Condition: Good. Original border intact, minor repair and protective reconstruction with back added as structural safeguard. Some areas with holes, some areas of repair to border.
Measures: 8'7'' wide x 10'1'' long.
Tapestries make integral part of the Flemish cultural heritage. Most of the tapestries have religious, mythological and historical subjects as well as hunting and harvest scenes. They are known for their high quality and extended use of colors. The oldest ones were made in the 13th century. The most important production centers were Doornik and Arras. These two centers got a lot of assignments of the Dukes of Burgundy. In the 14th century tapestries...
Category
French French Provincial Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Indo-Portuguese Embroidered Linen Wall Hanging, 18th Century
Located in Lewes, East Sussex
Indo-Portuguese Embroidered Silk and Linen Wall Hanging, 18th Century. Some edge losses to linen otherwise in good condition. Fast shipping worldwide.
Category
Indian Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Linen, Silk
Nazmiyal Collection Belgian Tapestry Verdure Garden Pavilion 5 ft 8 in x 7 in
Located in New York, NY
Antique Belgian Tapestry – Garden with Birds and Pavilion, Origin: Belgium, Circa Date: 18th Century
Category
Belgian French Provincial Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
18th Century French Aubusson Tapestry
Located in Gloucestershire, GB
Beautiful 18th Century Aubusson Tapestry.
This tapestry was hand-made in central France in the valley of the Creuse.
Aubusson Verdure tapestries originated from workshops set up betw...
Category
French French Provincial Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry
American framed needle work sampler by Seraphina Learned, 1800
s
Located in Kenilworth, IL
American sampler of silk floss on linen with a modest zig-zag border framing an uppercase letter alphabet, followed by a cursive alphabet, a lower case alphabet, and the numerals one...
Category
American Folk Art Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Linen, Silk
$562 Sale Price
25% Off
Zabihi Collection Late 18th Century Flemish Verdure Tapestry
Located in New York, NY
a late 18th century Flemish Vedure Tapestry
Measures: 7'4'' wide x 9' long.
Tapestries make integral part of the Flemish cultural heritage. Most of the tapestries have religious, m...
Category
French French Provincial Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
18th Century French Aubusson Tapestry "Verdure"
Located in LA CIOTAT, FR
A luxurious 18th-century Aubusson tapestry, depicting a dog barking at fowl on a river, in a typically rural and architectural-themed landscape. Hand-woven in wool, in predominantly ...
Category
French Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Antique 18th Century Franco-Flemish Mythological Tapestry, with Diana
Callisto
Located in New York, NY
An antique Franco-Flemish mythological tapestry from the 18th century, featuring the goddess of the hunt, Diana with her attendant, Callisto. In this sultry scene, Diana reposes on a...
Category
French Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
$54,000 Sale Price
20% Off
Georgian Embroidered Panel, circa 1780
Located in Basildon, GB
Georgian Embroidered Panel, circa 1780. Finely worked in coloured silks and depicting a vase with flowers, all of which were symbols of trust during...
Category
British Georgian Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Silk
$961 Sale Price
30% Off
Antique Flemish Wool
Silk Tapestry 36cm×43 cm Mounted Scenic 1
x2
c.1790
Located in New York, NY
This 18th-century Flemish tapestry panel depicts a serene, blue-toned landscape with castle architecture framed by lush foliage. Handwoven in wool and silk, the composition reflects ...
Category
Belgian Baroque Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
A Flemish Verdure Tapestry, 18th Century
Located in ARMADALE, VIC
A Flemish Verdure Tapestry, 18th Century
Depicting a woodland scene, with a large tree in the foreground and a city in the far background.
Provenance: Private Australian Collection...
Category
Belgian Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
French 18th Century Tapestry Fragment
Located in Baton Rouge, LA
This vibrant tapestry fragment hails from 18th century France. Two panels have been recently attached with brilliant blue trimming. The fabric is worn but retains its vibrant floral ...
Category
French Other Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Fabric, Textile, Tapestry
Late 18th Century French Landscape Tapestry
Located in New York, NY
A French landscape tapestry from the late 18th century, envisioning a series of cottages on verdant hills at center, flanked by large stately...
Category
French Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
$10,995 Sale Price
38% Off
French 18th Century Verdure Tapestry
Located in Baton Rouge, LA
An outstanding French 18th Century verdure tapestry depicting a riparian forest scene. Done in autumnal colors of burnt oranges, golds, browns, reds and greens, this stunning woven t...
Category
French Other Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Textile
Embroidered Holy Spirit Panel
Located in New York, NY
Embroidered Holy Spirit panel. Antique embroidered doubled sided panel in paper with original antique seeded glass and gilt carved frame, Italy, l...
Category
Italian Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Silk
Antique 18th Century Flemish Mythological Tapestry, with the Greek Deity Apollo
Located in New York, NY
An antique 18th century Flemish mythological tapestry, size 11'0 H x 12'6 W. This period European tapestry depicts the Greek God Apollo, who is the deity of the arts, poetry, crops, ...
Category
Belgian Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
$25,996 Sale Price
20% Off
Large Flemish 17th-18th Century Baroque Pictorial Tapestry "the Royal Garden"
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A large Flemish 17th-18th century baroque pictorial tapestry "The Royal Garden". The large tapestry depicting an allegorical park-scene of R...
Category
French Baroque Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
$29,850 Sale Price
37% Off
18th C. French Hand Woven Aubusson Tapestry with Birds, Ruins, and Floral Border
Located in Dallas, TX
This exquisite antique tapestry was handwoven in Aubusson, France, circa 1760, and exemplifies the refined artistry and technical mastery for which this historic weaving center is ce...
Category
French Louis XV Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry, Canvas
Antique Flemish Verdure Tapestry 9
6 x 12
2
Located in New York, NY
Antique flemish verdure tapestry, 9'6 x 12'2. This antique Flemish tapestry, probably from Brussels is a pure verdure, no humans, just one bird and no animals disturb the sylvan tran...
Category
Dutch Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
Patchwork Army Cloth from Military Uniform/ Wartime Quilts, France, 1866
Located in London, GB
A patchwork panel made from scraps of military uniform dated 1866, commemorating a small military unit in the middle of France. This panel relates to...
Category
French Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Fabric
$1,631 Sale Price
20% Off
1106, 18th Century Aubusson Tapestry
Located in Paris, FR
1106 - a very beautiful 18th century Aubusson tapestry with very pretty color.
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
French Aubusson Style Tapestry Depicting a Fishing Scene (H 85 1/4 x W 44)
Located in Austin, TX
A fine large French Aubusson or Flemish style tapestry from the 18th century, featuring a pastoral landscape scene with a man fishing a stream next to a large tree in the foreground, creel basket...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Fabric
Antique 18th Century French Beauvais Floral Tapestry Lumbar Pillow
Located in New York, NY
Gorgeous Antique 18th Century French Beauvais Floral Tapestry Lumbar Pillow measuring 14 x 21 inches.
Excellent condition.
Complimentary Shipp...
Category
Dutch Rococo Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry, Wool, Silk
18th Century Aubusson Verdure Tapestry
Located in Los Angeles, CA
18th Century European Hand-Woven Aubusson Verdure Tapestry depicting a woodland nature scene. Made in France circa 18th Century. Finely woven with cloth backing.
Category
French Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry, Wool
Large Antique Tapestry
Located in New York, NY
An antique 18th century French Verdure tapestry panel depicting a city on a hill, trees, and animals.
Measurements:
Height: 88"
Width: 145"
Depth:...
Category
French Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Fabric
$28,000
18th Century French Aubusson Woodland Tapestry
Located in Chicago, IL
An 18th-century handwoven Aubusson tapestry depicting a verdant woodland in rich, moody tones. Dappled foliage cascades across the scene, rendered in deep indigos, mossy greens, and ...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Fabric
Sofa Louis XV, Covered with Authentic Perfect Aubusson Tapestry
Located in Alessandria, Piemonte
1910/M,
I hope You can understand what it is from some photos only.
Museum quality antique sofa, coating with an authentic Aubusson old tapestry: every...
Category
Italian Louis XV Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wood
Antique 18th C. Embroidered Italian Heraldic Armorial Coat of Arms Tapestry 20"
Located in Dayton, OH
An antique hand stiched 18th Century Italian armorial heraldic embroidered coat of arms. Features a knights helmet over a shield with star of...
Category
Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Fabric, Glass, Wood
$437 Sale Price
30% Off
Flemish Tapestry 18th - The Swiss Guard, Pastoral Passage of the Pope - N° 1483
Located in Paris, FR
18th Century Flanders Tapestry - The Swiss Guard, Pastoral Passage of the Pope - No. 1483
Period: 18th century
Condition: Perfect condition
Material: Wool & silk
Width: 275 cm
Height...
Category
French French Provincial Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Late 18th Century French Aubusson Verdure Tapestry with Louis XV Style
Located in Dallas, TX
78236 Late 18th Century Antique French Aubusson Verdure Tapestry, 04'01 x 06'00. Bathed in the soft glow of Rococo refinement, this handwoven antique French Aubusson tapestry from th...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
$7,499 Sale Price
37% Off
Pair Antique 18th Century Flemish Tapestries, Circa 1780.
Located in New Orleans, LA
Pair Antique 18th Century Flemish Tapestries, Circa 1780.
Category
Belgian Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Tapestry
Franco-Flemish 18th Century Figural Tapestry Allegorical to "Triumph
Love"
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A very fine baroque Franco-Flemish 18th century figural tapestry allegorical to triumph and love, depicting three maidens within a verdure backgro...
Category
Belgian Baroque Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool
$38,450 Sale Price
48% Off
18th Century Indo-portuguese Embroidery In Gold Thread On Velvet
Located in Brussels, Brussels
Spectacular 18th century Indo-Portuguese embroidery
gold thread work on burgundy silk velvet decorated with elephants, birds and floral motifs,
e...
Category
Portuguese Aesthetic Movement Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Silk
Huge early 1700
s Verdure Aubusson Tapestry
Located in LYON, FR
French Aubusson woven tapestry from the early 1700's depicting a lizard standing in luscious vegetation. Created in Aubusson, located in central France. Interestingly this vertical w...
Category
French Aubusson Antique 18th Century Tapestries
Materials
Wool, Silk
Tapestry Royal Manufacture of Aubusson, Louis XVI period 1738 at the Gobelins
Located in Madrid, ES
Tapestry from the Royal Manufacture of Aubusson, Louis XVI period , made in 1738 at the Gobelins
One panel from a series of Gobelins tapestries depicting the History of Esther, illustrating Esther seated and attended by handmaidens, one washing her feet in golden basin, another fastening a bracelet, another offering a mirror, all observed by Mordecai, woven in the workshop of Michele Audran after a design by J. F. de Troy.
The Toilet of Esther c.1778-85.Royal Collection Trust-Queens Audience Chamber
Windsor Castle
The Sketches for the Esther Cycle by Jean-François de Troy (1736)
“and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mor’decai, ..., took for his own daughter.” (Est. 2:7)
A supple and undulating genius, both a flattering portraitist and a prolix history painter, as well as a brilliant genre painter, in a gallant or worldly vein, Jean-François de Troy (Paris, 1679 – Rome, 1752), solicited, although he had passed the threshold of old age, a new royal commission up to his ambitions. To obtain it, he submitted – successfully - for the approval of the Bâtiments du roi (administration), seven modelli painted in 1736 with his usual alacrity.
Inspired by one of the most novelistic texts of the Old Testament, the Book of Esther, these sketches in a rapid and virtuoso manner were transformed by the artist, between 1737 and 1740 into large cartoons intended to serve as models for the weavers of the Gobelins factory. Showing undeniable ease and skill in the composition in perfect harmony with the sensitivities of the times, the tapestry set met with great success.
The Story of Esther perfectly corresponded to the plan of the Bâtiments du roi to renew the repertoire of tapestry models used for the weavers of the royal factories while it also conformed to the tastes of Louis XV’s subjects for a fantastical Orient, the set for a dramatic tale in which splendour, love and death were combined. Indeed, no tapestry set was woven in France during the 18th century as often as that of Esther.
The series of modelli painted by de Troy during the year 1736 looks to the history of French painting and decoration under Louis XV as much as it does the history of the Gobelins. It probably counts among the most important rococo pictorial groups to have remained in private hands. First the Biblical source illustrated by De Troy which constitutes the base of one of the richest iconographical traditions of Western art will be considered. Then the circumstances and specific character of French civilisation during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV which contributed to making the theme of Esther a relevant subject, both attractive to contemporaries and remarkably in line with the sensitivities of the time will be elucidated.
An examination of the exceptional series of sketches united here, the cartoons and the tapestries that they anticipate as well as a study of their reception will close this essay. The Book of Esther: A scriptural source at the source of rich iconography.
The origin of the Esther tapestry set by Jean-François de Troy – origin and creation of a masterpiece
According to the evidence of one of the artist’s early biographers, the chevalier de Valory, author of a posthumous elegy of the master, read at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on 6 February 1762, it was apparently due to early16 rivalry with François Lemoyne (1688-1737), his younger colleague who had precisely just been appointed First Painter to the King in 1736, that had encouraged François de Troy to seek a commission allowing him to show off his ease and his promptitude at the expense of a rival who was notoriously laborious: “M. De Troy, retaining some resentment of the kind of disadvantage which he believed to have suffered compared with his emulator looked to regain some territory by making use of the facility his rival did not possess.
Lemoyne was excessively long in the creation of his works,and M. De Troy of a rare celerity: consequently, with this particular talent, the latter offered to the court to make paintings appropriate to be executed at the Gobelins Factory; and it is to this circumstance that we owe the beautiful series of the Story of Esther, which would be sufficient alone to give him a great reputation.”17 Beyond the suspicion inspired by the topos, which still constitutes, more or less, a tale of rivalries between artists in ancient literature, there is probably some truth in what Valory reports although A.-J. Dezalier d’Argenville (who indicates rather spitefully that de Troy did not hesitate to “cut prices” to impose himself, benefitting from the productivity assured by the unlikely rapidity of his brush)18 proves to be more evasive: “As he looked to busy himself, he had offered to make the paintings that serve as models for the King’s tapestries cheaply: which did not please his colleagues.
He was given a choice of two tapestry series to be made and he took the Story of Esther and that of Jason”.19 Whether or not the choice was actually left to de Troy (which would appear rather casual on the royal administration’s part all the same), it seems likely that the artist, whose contemporaries extol his “fire”, as the faculty of invention was then called, must have ardently aspired to the possibility of using on a very large scale the “creative genius” with which Dezallier d’Argenville credits him. The decoration of the private apartments, the fashion for which Louis XV had promoted at Versailles and Fontainebleau, offered little opportunity to excel in this area. Other than painting for altarpieces, only tapestries could allow comparison with Lemoyne who had been granted – unfortunately for him – a major decoration: the enormous ceiling of the Hercules Room at Versailles. Favoured by the recent improvement in France’s financial situation, the revival of patronage offered de Troy a commission fitting for him, in a field in which, however, he had hardly any experience.
Anxious to renew the repertoire of models available to the Gobelins factory, the Duc d’Antin, surintendant des Bâtiments du roi from 1708 to 1736 followed by his successor, Philibert Orry comte de Vignory, gave him the task of producing seven large cartoons inspired by the Book of Esther corresponding to the brilliant sketches or modelli which de Troy had produced in one go, or almost (very few preparatory drawings can in fact be linked to the Esther cycle and all seem to be at the execution stage of the cartoons).20 Subjected to the approval of the Administration des Bâtiments according to the procedure in use for projects being planned for the Gobelins, sketches made rapidly during 1736 were approved and the project launched immediately. Thereupon came the news of François Lemoyne’s death, who, ground down by work and a victim of his private torment, committed suicide on 4 June 1737.
Against all expectations, de Troy did not replace his rival in the position of First Painter (which remained vacant until the appointment of Charles Coypel in January 1747), which would perhaps have made him too obviously the beneficiary of the drama. The awarding of the position of Director of the French Academy in Rome came to console him while he had already produced (or he was in the process of finishing), in Paris, three of the seven cartoons of the cycle (The Fainting of Esther finished in 1737 and the Toilet and Coronation of Esther, both finished in 1738).
De Troy, we can see, did not follow the order of the narrative but began with the subjects which apparently offered the least difficulty because he had already depicted them, or because they fall into a strong pictorial tradition (such is the case especially for the Fainting of Esther). He had hardly settled at the Palazzo Mancini in August 1738, when his first task which awaited the new director of the French Academy naturally consisted of honouring the royal commission and finishing without delay the final cartoons of the Story of Esther after the sketches he must have taken with him. As prompt as ever, de Troy discharged himself of the execution of the four remaining cartoons in only two years, by beginning with the largest format which allowed him to strike the imagination and to impose himself as soon as he arrived on the Roman stage: the Triumph of Mor’decai which was finished in 1739 (like Esther’s Banquet).
The following year, the Mor’decai's Disdain and The Sentencing of Haman were brought to an end in the same Neo-Venetian style, obviously tributary to Veronese with its choice of “open” monumental architecture which is characteristic of the entire cycle.21 The series, it should be noted, was almost augmented with some additional scenes in the mid 1740s. Indeed, the first tapestry set finished at the Gobelins in 1744 proved to be unsuitable for the arrangement of the Dauphine’s apartments at Versailles for which it had been intended to decorate the walls the following year (cf infra). Informed of this, de Troy, considering that the story of Esther offered “several good subjects,” immediately offered to illustrate one or new subject among those “which could appear to be the most interesting”.
The directeur des Bâtiments Orry, who managed the State’s accounts, obviously judged it less costly to have one of the tapestries widened to fill in the end of the Dauphine’s bedroom,22 which has probably deprived us of very original compositions, because de Troy had already illustrated the most famous themes, those that benefitted from a strongly established iconographical tradition and from which it was not easy to deviate
The Tapestry Set of the Story of Esther
Placed on the tapestry looms of the Gobelins at the end of the 1730s in Michel Audran’s workshop, the cycle created by de Troy aroused true infatuation. The few hundred tapestries made between 1738 and 1797 – all in high-warp tapestry and woven in wool and silk except for four in low-warp made in Neilson’s workshop – show the impressive success of a tapestry set that was without any doubt the most frequently woven of the 18th century in France.
29 Only three cartoons had been delivered by de Troy in 1738 when the first tapestry set was begun by Audran under the expert eye of Jean-Baptiste Oudry to whom the Directeur général des bâtiments, Philibert Orry had assigned the (weekly) supervision of the weaving. During the summer of 1738, the piece of the Fainting of Esther, which Oudry judged to be admirable, was finished.
During the winter of 1742, Oudry informed Orry that about two ells of the Triumph of Mor’decai had been made “with no faults”,that the Coronation of Esther was finished and that the Esther at her Toilet “a very gracious tapestry” was “a little over half” finished. Exhibited at Versailles in 1743, these two last pieces were admired by Louis XV and the Court.
On 3 December 1744, the set of seven tapestries was finally delivered to the Garde Meuble. It was intended, the honour was not slight, to decorate the apartments of the Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain whose marriage to the young Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand had been fixed for the following year (it took place on 23 February 1745). Apparently it was thought that the theme of Esther the biblical heroine and wife of a foreign sovereign was appropriate for the apartments of the Spanish Dauphine.
As early as the month of March, the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel informed de Troy that her grand cabinet was decorated with the “Esther tapestry set” specifying however that “for lack of two small or one large piece, we have not been able to decorate the end of the room”. This difficulty led immediately to the Banquet episode being woven a second time in two parts (they were delivered to the Garde-Meuble on 30 December 1746) to garnish the panels on each side of the bed of the Dauphine who would hardly enjoy them (she died on 22 July 1746 and the decoration was installed for the new Dauphine Maria Josepha of Saxony).
The appearance of the set’s remarkable border, which imitated a richly sculpted wooden frame, should be mentioned. Conceived in 1738 by the ornamentalist Pierre Josse-Perrot and used in the later weavings until 1768, it tended to reinforce the resolutely painterly appearance of the tapestry set which, in this regard, pushed the art of tapestry as far as its ultimate mimetic possibilities. With the exception of Mor’decai's Disdain which had been removed earlier, the “editio princeps” of the story of Esther (from then on in nine pieces) remained at Versailles until the Revolution. Of the eight surviving tapestries, four are at the chateau of Compiègne and four belong today to the Mobilier National. No less than seven tapestry sets reputed to be complete (one of them in fact only had six tapestries) would be produced officially at the Gobelins up to 1772.
Literature:
1- The Œuvres mêlées of an emulator of Racine, the Abbé Augustin NADAL thus include an Esther. Divertissement spiritual which is exactly contemporary with Jean François de Troy’s cycle since it was performed in 1735 and published in Paris three years later.
2-Le Siècle de Louis XIV, 1751, 1785 ed., p. 96-97 for French ed.
3- Lemoyne and de Troy had been obliged to share the First Prize in the competition organised in 1727 between the most prominent history painters of the Académie Royale.
4- Mémoires…, pub. L. DUSSIEUX et al., 1854, II, p.265.
5-The fact that de Troy, at the risk of falling out with his colleagues, did not hesitate to make use of prices in order to convince the new directeur des Bâtiments Philibert Orry, is confirmed by Mariette who adds tersely “it caused much shouting” (pub. 1851-1860, II, p. 103).
6- Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres…, ed. 1762, IV, p. 368-369 20 Early comments on the painter are inclined to present him as a kind of “pure painter”, doing without the medium of drawing, a few intermediary studies between the Esther sketches and the large cartoons at the Louvre nevertheless show that de Troy used red chalk (see in the catalogue, the notice for the Meal of Esther and Ahasuerus under the entry drawing) to change one or other figure.
7-C. GASTINEL-COURAL (cat. exp. PARIS, 1985, p. 9-13) as well as the article by J. VITTET, exh. cat. LA ROCHE-GUYON, 2001, p. 51-55.
8-The Hermitage in St. Petersburg conserves five tapestries of these two royal gifts whose provenance still awaits elucidation (as far as we are aware). In 1766, the Grand Marshal of Russia, Count Razumovski (or Razamowski), acquired the Fainting and the Banquet extracted from the sixth weaving (J. VITTET, 2001, p. 53).
9- Lettres écrites de Suisse, d’Italie…,quoted by J. VITTET, op. cit., p. 54.
10-The tapestry set remained in the hands of a branch of the Hapsburg-Lorraine family until 1933 (ibid. P. 54).
11-Quoted by Chr. LERIBAULT, 2002, p. 97, note 269.
12-Y. CANTAREL-BESSON, 1992, p. 241.
Catalogue
The Esther at her Toilet
Oil on canvas, 57 x 51 cm Provenance: Painted in 1736 at the same time as the six other modelli of the Story of Esther intended to be presented, for approval, to the direction des Bâtiments du Roi; perhaps identifiable among a lot of sketches by Jean-François de Troy in the post mortem inventory of the amateur, historian and critic Claude-Henri Watelet (1718-1786) drawn up on 13 January 1786 and following days (A.N. T 978, n° 30) then in the sale of the property of the deceased, Paris, 12 June 1786, n° 33; Paris, François Marcille Collection (who owned a series of six sketches from which the Triumph of Mor’decai was missing, see infra); Paris, Marcille Sale, Hôtel Drouot, 12-13 January 1857, n° 36; Asnières, Mme de Chavanne de Palmassy ( ?) collection; Paris, Galerie Cailleux; Paris, Humbert de Wendel collection (acquired from the Galerie Cailleux in 1928); by inheritance in the same family; Paris, Sotheby’s, 23 June 2011, n° 61. In order not to add unnecessarily to the technical commentary on each work, the catalogue raisonné by Chr. Leribault which contains a substantial bibliography on the series should be referred to. The other bibliographical references only concern the publications and exhibitions to have appeared and been presented more recently. Bibliography and Exhibitions: Chr. LERIBAULT, 2002, n° P. 247 (repr.); E. LIMARDO DATURI, 2004, p. 28; Exh. cat. NANTES, 2011, p. 138, n° 34, referred to in note 1; Sotheby’s catalogue, Tableaux anciens et du XIXe siècle, 23 June 2011, n° 61 (repr.).
Related Works:
Tapestry cartoon: The cartoon (oil on canvas, 329 x 320 cm), the third made by the artist in Paris after the sketches had been approved by the direction des Bâtiments, is in the Louvre (Inv. 8315). It previously bore the painter’s signature and the date 1738 (inscriptions which are found on the tapestries). The royal administration paid 1600 livres for it on 21 June 1738 and it was exhibited at the Salon in the year of its creation.
Summary Biography
1679 (27 January): Baptism in Paris (Parish of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet) of Jean-François de Troy, son of the painter François de Troy and Jeanne Cotelle, sister of the painter Jean II Cotelle.
1696-1698: Studies (apparently rather turbulent) at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.
1698-1708: First trip to Italy. Is obliged to leave Rome in January 1711 after a tempestuous affair (a duel?), de Troy extends the traditional Roman experience as a pensionnaire at the Académie de France by also visiting Tuscany where he stays for a long time, Venice (his art in face has a strongly Venetian character) and Genoa.
1708: De Troy (whose father had been elected Director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on 7 July) is agréé and immediately received at the Académie with Apollo and Diana Piercing with their Arrows the Children of Niobe (Montpellier, Musée Fabre) on 28 July.
1710: First royal commission, paid for on 10 May (a sketch representing “the Promotion of the Order of the Holy Spirit” for the tapestry series of the History of the King).
1716: Jean-François de Troy is elected Assistant Professor at the Academy.
1720: He is appointed Professor.
1723: The artist creates the double portrait of Louis XV...
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