Charles Cressent (1685 - 1768) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
furniture-maker,
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
and fondeur-ciseleur of the régence style. As the second son of Francois Cressent, sculpteur du roi, and grandson of Charles Cressent, a furniture-maker of
AmiensAmiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardie.-History:The Paleolithic culture named Acheulean was named for its first identified site, in Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens...
, who also became a sculptor, he inherited the tastes and aptitudes which were likely to make a finished designer and craftsman. Even more important perhaps was the fact that he was a pupil of
André Charles BoulleAndré-Charles Boulle , was the French cabinetmaker who is generally considered to be the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry...
.
Charles Cressent (1685 - 1768) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
furniture-maker,
sculptorSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
and fondeur-ciseleur of the régence style. As the second son of Francois Cressent, sculpteur du roi, and grandson of Charles Cressent, a furniture-maker of
AmiensAmiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardie.-History:The Paleolithic culture named Acheulean was named for its first identified site, in Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens...
, who also became a sculptor, he inherited the tastes and aptitudes which were likely to make a finished designer and craftsman. Even more important perhaps was the fact that he was a pupil of
André Charles BoulleAndré-Charles Boulle , was the French cabinetmaker who is generally considered to be the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry...
. Trained in such surroundings, it is not surprising that he should have reached a degree of achievement which has to a great extent justified the claim that he was the best decorative artist of the 18th century. Cressent's distinction is closely connected with the regency, but his earlier work had affinities with the school of Boulle, while his later pieces were full of originality.
He was likewise a sculptor, and among his plastic work is known to have been a bronze bust of
LouisLouis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans was a member of the royal family of France, the House of Bourbon, and as such was a Prince du Sang. At his father's death, he became the First Prince of the Blood...
, the son of Philip II, Duke of Orléans, for whom Cressent had made one of the finest examples of French furniture of the 18th century the famous medaillier now in the Bibliothéque Nationale. Cressent's bronze mounts were executed with a sharpness of finish and a grace and vigour of outline which were hardly excelled by his great contemporary
Jacques CaffieriJacques Caffieri was a French sculptor, the most famous member of a family distinguished in works of sculpture, for the most part in bronze.-Life:Jacques Caffiéri was the twenty third son of Philippe Caffieri...
. His female figures placed at the corners of tables are indeed among the most delicious achievements of the great days of the French metal worker. Much of Cressent's work survives, and can be identified; the
LouvreThe Musée du Louvre or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the...
and the
Wallace CollectionThe Wallace Collection is a museum in London, with a world-famous range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with large holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries.It was established in...
are especially rich in it, and his commode at Hertford House with gilt handles representing Chinese dragons is perhaps the most elaborate piece he ever produced.
The work of identification is rendered comparatively easy in his case by the fact that he published catalogues of three sales of his work. These catalogues are highly characteristic of the man, who shared in no small degree the personal bravura of
CelliniBenvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, painter, sculptor, soldier and musician of the Renaissance, who also wrote a famous autobiography.-Youth:...
, and could sometimes execute almost as well. He did not hesitate to describe himself as the author of a clock worthy to be placed in the very finest cabinets, the most distinguished bronzes, or pieces of the most elegant form adorned with bronzes of extra richness. He worked much in marqueterie, both in tortoiseshell and in brilliant colored woods. He was indeed an artist to whom color appealed with especial force. The very type and exemplar of the feeling of the regency.