Writing table (bureau plat)

Jean-François Leleu

Not on view

This bureau plat by Jean-François Leleu exemplifies the Neoclassical style favored by elite French patrons at the end of the eighteenth century. Jean-François Leleu (1729–1807) was trained, alongside his rival Jean-Henri Riesener, in the workshop of Jean-François Oeben. Leleu became a master ébéniste in 1764 and enjoyed the patronage of wealthy aristocrats, including the Prince de Condé, Louis-Joseph de Bourbon. Similar to the pieces produced for the prince de Condé’s Palais-Bourbon, this table reflects the strong, masculine Neoclassical forms favored by Leleu, evidenced by the tapering architectural legs and gilt-bronze ornaments. A similar writing table is rendered in the 1808 portrait of Charles Maurice Talleyrand by François Gérard also in the museum’s collection (2012.348).

References:
Yannick Chastang. Paintings in Wood: French Marquetry Furniture. London: The Wallace Collection, 2001.

Kahtyrn Calley Galitz, "François Gérard: Portraiture, Scandal and the Art of Power in Napoleonic France," The Metropolitan Musuem of Art Bulletin, LXXI: 1 (Summer 2013), 5–48.

Writing table (bureau plat), Jean-François Leleu (1729–1807, master 1764), Oak, veneered with mahogany, sycamore and holly; gilt bronze, leather, French

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Writing table (bureau plat), Jean-François Leleu (1729–1807, master 1764), Oak, veneered with mahogany, sycamore and holly; gilt bronze, leather, French
Writing table (bureau plat), Jean-François Leleu (1729–1807, master 1764), Oak, veneered with mahogany, sycamore and holly; gilt bronze, leather, French

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