Set 12 1960's Louis XVI Style French Painted Dining Chairs Manner of Jansen

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Description

This impressive suite of painted and decorated dining chairs is conceived in the refined French Louis XVI taste, interpreted with … Read more This impressive suite of painted and decorated dining chairs is conceived in the refined French Louis XVI taste, interpreted with the polished, cosmopolitan sensibility associated with Maison Jansen. The ensemble has an immediately architectural presence: tall, gently arched upholstered backs rise above generously proportioned seats, while slender, tapering legs and restrained carved details give the chairs an elegant verticality. The pale painted frames, subtly distressed to suggest age and patina, soften the formality of the design and lend the group the atmosphere of furnishings from a grand European country house.

The chairs draw their vocabulary from the French Neoclassical tradition that flourished during the reign of Louis XVI. In contrast to the fluid curves of the preceding Rococo period, Louis XVI furniture favored symmetry, straight lines, tapered legs and motifs derived from Classical architecture. Here, that vocabulary is expressed through the delicately molded frames, turned and tapering supports, and balanced, almost ceremonial silhouette of each chair. Nailhead trim follows the perimeter of the upholstered backs and seats, creating a crisp graphic outline while recalling traditional French upholstery techniques.

Particularly effective is the relationship between the painted wood and the upholstery. The warm ivory and biscuit-colored textile carries an intricate repeating floral and foliate pattern whose restrained palette complements rather than competes with the frames. The combination produces the sort of cultivated understatement for which sophisticated twentieth-century French interiors became celebrated: historic in inspiration, yet comfortable and eminently usable. Seen together as a large suite, the chairs acquire considerable decorative impact and would be equally appropriate surrounding a substantial dining table or arranged throughout a formal reception room.

The reference to Maison Jansen is especially appropriate. Sometimes mistakenly called “Mason Jansen,” Maison Jansen was the celebrated Parisian decorating house founded in 1880 by the Dutch-born decorator Jean-Henri Jansen. It developed into one of the earliest truly international interior-design firms, working for an elite clientele throughout Europe, North and South America and the Middle East. Jansen became particularly renowned for its sophisticated reinterpretations of eighteenth-century French furniture—especially the Louis XV, Louis XVI and Empire styles—rather than simply reproducing historical models. Christie's describes the firm's work as creating a dialogue between historical French styles and contemporary taste.

Under the influential decorator Stéphane Boudin, who joined the firm in 1923 and later became its principal designer, the Jansen aesthetic developed into an exceptionally assured mixture of grandeur, historical scholarship and comfortable modern elegance. Boudin's international commissions included work for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and, most famously, Jacqueline Kennedy's restoration and redecoration of rooms in the White House.

These chairs embody precisely that decorative philosophy: unmistakably French in ancestry, formal without being severe, luxurious without excessive ornament, and designed to create the impression of inherited elegance. Their pale painted surfaces, Neoclassical proportions and quietly sumptuous patterned upholstery give the ensemble the sophisticated grande maison character so closely associated with the enduring Maison Jansen tradition.


Dimensions: 37.75 inches high x 19.5 inches wide x 21.5 inches deep. Seat Height 19 inches High See less