Tester bed (lit à la duchesse en impériale)
The custom of receiving visitors while reposing in a large and elegantly fitted out bed was practiced in France during the eighteenth century mostly by aristocratic women. The Museum’s imposing piece of furniture with its exquisitely carved floral decoration, the work of an unknown carver, must have formed a splendid backdrop for such official calls or congratulatory visits. In 1791 the bed is documented as standing in the large bedchamber of Guyonne-Marguerite de Durfort de Lorge, duchesse de Choiseul-Praslin (1737–1806), at her Parisian home, the Hôtel de Belle Isle. Following the turmoil of the Revolution and the political changes of the early nineteenth century, the bed was sold in Paris in 1830. It became part of the famous collections at Hamilton Palace, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, the residence of Alexander Hamilton Douglas, tenth Duke of Hamilton (1767–1852), where it was placed in one of the state rooms. The duke’s grandson sold the contents of the palace, including the bed, at a highly anticipated auction that took place in 1882. Through the intermediation of several dealers, the bed was acquired in 1897 by the financier and railroad executive George J. Gould (1864–1923). His wife, the former actress Edith M. Kingdon (1864–1921), used it in her bedroom of their New York town house.
[Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, 2010]
Footnotes:
[1] Tobias George Smollett. Travels through France and Italy. London, 1766. New ed.: Introduction by James Morris. Travellers' Classics 11. Fontwell, Sussex, 1969, p. 43.
Artwork Details
- Title: Tester bed (lit à la duchesse en impériale)
- Maker: Georges Jacob (French, Cheny 1739–1814 Paris)
- Factory: Tapestry made at Beauvais
- Artist: After a design by Jean-Baptiste Huet I (French, Paris 1745–1811 Paris)
- Date: ca. 1782–83
- Culture: French, Paris
- Medium: Carved, painted and gilded walnut, pine, and linden; iron hardware; silk and wool Beauvais tapestry; modern silk damask
- Dimensions: Overall (bed components installed): H. 156 3/4 x W. 73 1/2 x D. 86 3/4 in. (398.1 x 186.7 x 220.3 cm);
Headboard: H. 79 1/2 x W. 73 1/2 in. (201.9 x 186.7 cm);
Tester at rectangular frame: W. 78 x D. 90 1/2 in. (198.1 x 229.9 cm);
Greatest dims. of tester including protruding crestings: H. 17 x W. 96 x D. 99 1/2 in. (43.2 x 243.8 x 252.7 cm);
H. of canopy from floor: 156-3/4 in. (398.1cm)
Matteress support: 80 x 64 x 3 1/2 in. - Classification: Woodwork-Furniture
- Credit Line: Gift of Kingdon Gould, in memory of his mother, Edith Kingdon Gould, 1923
- Object Number: 23.235a
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Audio
2282. Bed (Lit En Dáme à La Duchesse), Part 1
NARRATOR: This gilded, richly carved state bed is called a lit à la duchesse. Its canopy is not supported by any posts but is suspended from the ceiling. It was hung with tapestries woven at the Beauvais Manufactory. Though it is much worn today you can still see the original tapestry inside the dome. Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide.
DANIËLLE KISLUK-GROSHEIDE: Tapestry beds were very, very rare. . . . But we know that these tapestry beds would have two types of hangings. The tapestries were used during the winter months and a set of lighter hangings were used during the summer. . . . We've created a set of so-called summer hangings for this bed, of silk damask, with a Neoclassical pattern.
NARRATOR: The bed was made by the noted chairmaker Georges Jacob, but we don’t know who was responsible for the elaborate carving. On the headboard is a gilded and highly burnished urn draped with garlands of flowers.
DANIËLLE KISLUK-GROSHEIDE: All the flowers are past their prime. And I can't help but wondering if this is, perhaps, a not-so-hidden reference to memento mori, that even the most beautiful flower will one day wilt.
NARRATOR: This bed seems awfully high to the modern viewer. And it even seemed high then, if you were a visitor to France.To hear more, press play.
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