H is name is the byword for ancien régime excellence in courtly furniture, creating works of dazzling sculptural art in gilt bronze and marquetry that surpass anything produced after the French Revolution. His patrons were the last of the Bourbon royal family, King Louis XVI, his queen Marie Antoinette and the upper crust of the cultured, sophisticated court at Versailles. His creations are the jewels of the finest collections of furniture and decorative art in the world, and when they come to auction they fetch prices in the hundreds of thousands or even the millions. Such is the remarkable legacy of the German-born craftsman, Jean-H💮enri Riesener (1734–1806), king of cabinetmakers and cabinetmaker to the king.

Riesener’s career began with the completion of a sumptuous desk created for Louis XV (1715–1774), the construction of which had been begun by his master Jean-François Oeben before he died in 1763. This desk, now in Versailles (OA 5444), is a spectacular embodiment of the florid, liquid aesthetic that was fashionable at the time, the playful Rococo style, but Riesener would produce his masterpieces in the later fashion that followed this one. After being appointed as the cabinetmaker to the king in 1774, Riesener would produce hundreds of luxurious pieces in the ‘Neoclassical’ style that was more rectilinear and architectural, and would often incorporate complex marquetry panels. These panels, dubbed “painting in wood”, are composed of small pieces of wooden veneer that are carefully cut, dipped in hot sand and sometimes dyed, then assembled into intricate pictures. Riesener’s marquetry often takes the form of floral bouquets, but also the precise geometric backgrounds that cover the furniture, creating a sleek rhythmic look that was in line with the clean look of Neoclassicism. Organic wood tends to change over time to become more brown, but a shows us that his marquetry would have been a vivid combination of bright white, lustrous purple, apple green and deep scarlet. During his time supplying furniture to the court, Riesener’s pieces furnished the rooms of not just the royal family but numerous important aristocrats as well, all carefully recorded and indexed in the documentation of the Garde-Meuble: for example, the Riesen🧜er commode sold at Sotheby’sꦑ London in April 2024 was supplied to the Versailles rooms of the comte de Noailles in 177🍎9, which can be verified in archival research on account of its 🎐inventory mark.

The high point of Riesener’s💟 career spanned from the mid-1770s to the mid-1780s, until a change in taste was ushered in under the leadership of the new Head of Royal Furniture Administration, Marc-Antoine Thierry, baron de Ville-d'Avray. In 1784 he replaced a Riesener enthusiast in the role called Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu, and his preference for more sober ornament meant that Riesener was removed from his position as cabinetmaker to the King in 1785. However, an admiration for Rie🎃sener had begun to develop across the Channel, and during the Revolutionary sales of royal property that raised money for the new regime in the 1790s, many of Riesener’s masterpieces were bought by English collectors. These included George, Prince of Wales, the Rothschilds and the 4th Marquess of Hertford.

In the United States, too, admiration for Riesener’s work developed during the 19th century, cultivated in large part by the influential dealers called the Duveen Brothers. For instance, the financier and collector J. Pierpont Morgan bo🉐ught a Riesener secretaire from Joel Duveen for £17,600 in 1899, and after Morgan’s death Joseph Duveen would then broker the sale of the same secretaire to Henry Clay Frick, thanks to whom the piece is stiꦿll on public display today at the Frick Collection in New York ().

During the later 19th century, with its intensely revivalist spirit, Riesener’s furniture was often emulated or imitated by top French ébénistes. Riesener’s work was seen as one of the pinnacles of ancien régime artistic achievements, leading luxury Parisian furniture-makers to produce high-quality, faithful copies of his originals, particularly of those formerly in the French Royal collection. For example, masterful copies of Riesener commodes by 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:François Linke and Henry Dasson were sold at 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Sotheby’s New York in 2015 and 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Sotheby’s Paris in 2019. Whether collected or imitated, Riesener’s skilful command of his luxurious materi𓃲als and th👍e refined elegance of his designs has earned him admirers from the 19th century through the 20th and the 21st.

Since many of his works are in museum collections, a piece by Riesener at auction is a rare and significant event; when they do come under the hammer at Sotheby’s, they are usually part of our prestigious sales in London and Paris called Treasures, in which we present the finest pieces of furniture and decorative art. However, they are also sometimes part of significant single-owner collection sales, such as the 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:secrétaire en cabinet that sold as part of the auction 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Une Collection à 360° in Paris in 2023, and sometimes in our regular 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Classic Design sales in London, New York and Paris. If you are interested in learning more about Riesener and his creations, and would like to be informed about when we next have one of his pieces at Sotheby’s, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with one of our specialists in the 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:French Furniture department. To see more pieces of Riesener furnitur𝔍e, many of the museum collections with good holdings of his pieces have dedicated pages for him: examples include the, the, and the. Many museums have done extended analysis of their Riesener pieces, including enlightening 3D models and animations of a commode that is at Waddesdon Manor.