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Fire screen (écran)

Fabric panel in the style of Philippe de Lasalle French
ca. 1786
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 527
Georges Jacob supplied a set of seat furniture and a fire screen that were clearly designed to harmonize with the rest of the gold and silver décor. The gilt frame of the screen, which is now in the Museum's collection, incorporates silvered highlights such as the pearls and wisps of ivy strung around the two uprights shaped like burning torches, though they are now much worn. The string of pearls pulled through an openwork spiraling ribbon carved on the screen's top and lower rails also decorates the moldings of the paneling in the boudoir, and the same motif recurs in gilt bronze on the rolltop desk and the worktable. The original upholstery on the screen, a white gros de Tour, or ribbed silk, embroidered with colorful flowers, has been replaced with an eighteenth-century silk brocaded panel with a medallion enclosing a pastoral trophy in the style of the Lyon silk designer and manufacturer Philippe de Lasalle (1723–1805). During the Directoire period, in the late 1790s, the screen and the seat furniture from Marie Antoinette's boudoir at Fontainebleau were used at the Château de Saint Cloud (whose name is stamped several times on the screen's frame).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Fire screen (écran)
  • Maker: Georges Jacob (French, Cheny 1739–1814 Paris)
  • Maker: Fabric panel in the style of Philippe de Lasalle (French, 1723–1804)
  • Date: ca. 1786
  • Culture: French, Paris
  • Medium: Carved, gilded and silvered beech; 18th-century silk brocade (not original to frame)
  • Dimensions: H. 42 x W. 26-3/4 x D. 16-1/4 in. (106.7 x 67.9 x 41.3 cm)
  • Classification: Woodwork-Furniture
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1971
  • Object Number: 1971.206.16
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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