Savages and Bourgeois

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

We are in Mâcon, near Lyons, in the year XIII of the French revolutionary calendar (it lists more often today as the year 1804-1805). An entrepreneur of that city, Joseph Dufour, invented the "panoramique". The following year, his success led him to settle in Paris.

The high bourgeoisie, whose social status is reinforced since the Revolution of 1789, is looking for new emotions and for a new environment. For their apartments (and their castles), Dufour produces colored wallpaper, inspired by exotic and later mythological stories.

His panoramique entitled "les Sauvages de la mer du Pacifique" ou "les Voyages du Capitaine Cook" (Savages of the Pacific, or Travels of Captain Cook), deserves a detailed description, which is based on the Wikipedia article in English .

Twenty paper panels provide a circular landscape view inspired by Cook's travels. Circular means that the last one can be connected to the first. The animation, very free, of boats and of wild people, comes straight from the imagination of the artist, Jean-Gabriel Charvet. In order not to frighten the bourgeois, the "wild" look like opera characters.

Likely to adjust the size for the client, Dufour also provided vertical separations with column drawings and a cornice to fit to the ceiling.

A complete copy of this masterpiece of Dufour and Charvet will go on sale in Paris (Drouot) on June 12, by Binoche Renaud Giquello. It includes fourteen columns for an overall width to 17 meters, and a cornice going up to 2.7 meters. This monumental (and so romantic!) masterpiece is estimated 80 K €.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

I am surprised that the lot remained unsold. It was important in the history of interior decoration. This sector of the market clearly favors objects that are used for furnishing castles and historic residences. This panoramique is probably too large, unfortunately ...