We have already seen in the Louis XVI. period indications of the approaching Empire style; and noted that Lalonde leads directly into the models of Percier and Fontaine. There was, however, a short transitional period covering the years 1795 to 1799, when, after the Reign of Terror, the Directoire endeavoured to restore order in France. It was but natural that a society that held in high reverence the memories of the ancient republics of Greece and Rome should develop the “antique taste” under the guidance of “philosophic artists.”

As early as 1790, a writer exclaims: “We have changed everything; liberty, now consolidated in France, has restored the pure taste of the antique, which must not be confounded with the old Gothic taste. Hide yourselves, Boulle marquetry, knots of ribbon and rosettes of gilt bronze or moulu, bright and shining! Hide yourselves, hide yourselves, marvels of Bernard! Now is the hour when objects must be made to harmonize with circumstances!” “The boudoir,—the very sanctuary of coquetry—became a political cabinet,” says de Goncourt, who goes on to inform us that the charming pictures of Boucher, Fragonard, Lawrence, and LagrenÉes had to give place to caricatures and revolting prints of the hour, while pictures of the destroyed Bastille supplanted graceful mythological subjects.

“France,” he continues, “wished to dwell in the scenery of a tragedy, with a Spartan body, in Etruscan chairs made of mahogany whose backs were in the form of shovels, or two trumpets and a thyrsus bound together. After these chairs she reclined in antique arm-chairs whose framework was coloured bronze. She heard the hours strike from that civic clock representing the federative altar of the Champ de Mars with columns of marble and gilded bronze, and attributes of liberty. She slept in ‘patriotic beds.’ In the place of the bunches of feathers, caps were now placed on top of the fasces of lances that formed the bed-posts; beds represented the triumphal arch erected in the Champ de Mars^[26] on the day of the Confederation. She also slept in the ‘lit À la FÉdÉration,’ of four columns in the form of fasces grooved and painted in greyish white varnished, with the stems of the fasces gilded, as well as the axes and iron supports of the canopy.”

Caffieri no longer designed the lustres and sconce-arms of or moulu; the candelabra were now of porcelain, and represented Apollo and Daphne. These figures were flesh-coloured. The body of Daphne was half covered with the bark of the laurel, her head with green leaves, and her two hands turning into branches supported two gilded sconces.

The geometrical panels of the new drawing-rooms were coloured that deep brown, mingled with several other colours, which received the name genre Étrusque. Listen to these discords: “On the ceiling is a reddish-brown rosette in the form of a parasol; a sky-blue frieze is sprinkled with white cornucopiÆ. On the sides of the mirror, sky-blue pilasters are bordered with violet and white grape-leaves for ornament. Large and small light brown panels with violet borders are ornamented with little green parasols, and cameos with blue background with white figures and brown and red ornaments. And in that loud chocolate colour where some reds and greens try to recall to your mind the forsaken hues of the past are mingled three shades of rose, amaranth, blue, lilac, grey, emerald-green, moss-green, aventurine, citron, straw and sulphur. That gentle scale that sang so sweetly on the furniture and walls of by-gone days! that gentle scale that miserable taste has forsaken for the tri-colour, and for wall-paper printed with the distinctive signs of equality and liberty, from Dugoure’s Republican Manufactory, place du Carrousel at the so-called HÔtel de Longueville. Then the taste of the Revolution runs after the factory of the rue Saint Nicaise, place de la RÉunion, to find some pictures with the civic inscription ready for each citizen to place above his door bearing these words: ‘Unity, Indivisibility of the RÉpublic, Liberty, Fraternity or Death.’”^[27]

The Parisian hÔtels that were remodeled and newly furnished for the newly rich could not suggest the slightest reminiscence of the aristocratic life that they had witnessed. The artists, therefore, were forced to go to Greece and Rome for their models and motives. After Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt, the sphinx is frequent as a decoration, although it had long been familiar. The chairs, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 on Plate LXVIII., are from a periodical of the Directoire period 1793 and 1796; also the couch No. 2, Plate LXV. These show that the so-called Empire style was in process of formation before Napoleon attained power.

The most important cabinet-maker of the period was Jacob Desmalter. He was the son of Georges Jacob, who, during the reign of Louis XVI., was famous for his furniture of gilded wood. His two sons worked together in the rue MeslÉe; and, in 1793, got the order to make the furniture for the Convention. This brought them into relation with Percier, who had been commissioned to furnish the designs. About 1804, the younger Jacob disappears from business and the elder added the name Desmalter to his own, and soon removed his workshop to the rue des Vinagriers. Desmalter’s fame became wide-spread: he made furniture for the courts of Spain and Russia, and many pieces found their way also to England.

The famous workers in metal were Thomire, J. B. C. Odiot and Biennais.

The Recueil de DÉcorations IntÉrieures, composed by C. Percier and P. F. L. Fontaine (Paris, 1812), is the recognized authority on the Empire style. The authors speak of the influence engraving has had in extending an acquaintance with styles, and say they will make use of it to exhibit “those of our works in the nature of furniture, which, by the importance of the places they were destined for, or the rank of those who ordered them, may be regarded as appropriate to attest the correct way of seeing things, composing them and ornamenting them at the present period. This style does not belong to us; it is entirely the property of the ancients and as our only merit is to have understood how to conform our inventions to it, our true aim in giving these to the public is to do all that is within our power to prevent innovations to corrupt and destroy the principles which others will doubtless use better than we.

“The decoration and furnishing of houses are to houses what clothes are to people: everything of this nature becomes old, and in a very few years seems to be superannuated and ridiculous. The industrial arts, which concur with architecture in the embellishment of buildings, receive the same impulse from the spirit of fashion, and no kind of beauty or worth possessed by these articles of taste can assure them any longer existence than the interval of time necessary to find a new taste to replace them. To do everything according to reason in such a way that the reason may be perceived and justifies the means used,—this is the first principle of architecture. However, the first principle of fashion is to do everything without reason and never to do otherwise. The form and needs of the body give no reason for the forms of clothes; because people do not dress to cover themselves, but to adorn themselves. Furniture does not make a virtue of necessity with regard to the forms. We pass from the straight line to the tortuous, from the simple to the composite and vice versÂ. This is only too well exemplified in the history of modern architecture and its vicissitudes.”

The true inspiration of this period was David, the painter; and it has been aptly said that Desmalter did little but “translate into furniture the Greco-Roman dreams of the painter of the Sabines.” Prudhon was another artist of influence. The most famous decorative artists and designers were Percier and Fontaine.

The general characteristics of the Empire style are stiffness, severity and coldness. The forms are cubic and rectangular, without projections or carvings. Round tables on tripod legs, sofas and beds with heavily-scrolled ends, secretaries and desks with secret arrangements of drawers, etc., and a great use of metal ornamentation are among the prominent details of this style. The decorative motives are rosettes, allegorical figures, mahogany columns of cylindrical shafts, without flutings and surmounted by the Doric capital (and often with a bronze gilt bracket), fasces, sphinxes, wreaths of laurel, and the swan used upon the arms of chairs and sofas, the sides of beds and for the feet of tripods. No. 1 on Plate LXV. is an interesting example of the use of the swan. The sphinx was also used for decorating the arm of a chair, as shown on Plate LXV., No. 3, and on the double chair on Plate LXVIII. Its use as a table leg is exhibited on Plate LXV., and as a support for candles on Plate LXVII. Clocks and candelabra are decorated with heroes from ancient history in preference to divinities and allegorical figures. A little clock supported by an eagle appears on Plate LXV. This is one of Percier and Fontaine’s designs.

The greater number of the designs on Plates LXV., LXVI., LXVII., and LXVIII. are taken from Percier and Fontaine. Plate LXIV. is a reproduction of one of Percier and Fontaine’s bedrooms. “The ornaments that decorate this room,” they say, “are painted in oil upon plaster; they fill, without being of any determined subjects, various compartments; and among them are pictures of fruit, fragments of ordinary objects, painted in grisaille on a light background.” All the furniture—the table opposite the bed, the tripod, the toilet, the bed and the frame over the mantel-piece—is covered with bronzes, enamelled paintings and incrustations of various kinds of wood. The isolated pedestal at the head of the bed is an armoire, which contains conveniences for the night. On the top of the tall column is a winged goddess under which statue the letters “La bonne dÉesse,” appear. The bed is of the form of the large drawing that is shown on Plate LXVI. The two chairs on either side of the mantel-piece the designers tell us were made by Jacob. The detail No. 3, on Plate LXVII. is an enlargement of part of the mantel-piece, the fire-back of which represents the forge of Vulcan. The open-worked grate is copper gilt. The designs on Plates LXVI. and LXVII. are all by Percier and Fontaine, No. 1. on Plate LXVI., they say, is an arm-chair to stand in front of a desk; No. 2. is a lustre made of rock-crystal and bronze; No. 3 is a sofa-bed, and below it is a large sofa bed that was designed for a patron who was fond of war and sport. The hangings and the decorations of the wall behind the bed are therefore repeated here. The frame of the mirror is of gilded bronze. The glass swings forward. The rich commode with drawers on Plate LXVII. is an excellent example of the Percier and Fontaine work; above it, No. 2, is another commode and above that No. 1 the end of a bureau. Of the secretary on the same plate, they say: “This little piece of furniture, designed to preserve books, papers and money, has a clock in the upper part; below are secret drawers; in the centre a rolling cylinder and writing table. ChimÆras on each side of the table support girandoles for lights. The whole is made of different kinds of wood ornamented with bronzes.”

The rich sofa, or “double chair,” and the sofa-bed, on Plate LXVIII. are also by these designers. Of the tea-table on Plate LXV., they tell us: “The design of this table was sent to Russia so that it might be executed there in porcelain and bronze; the compartments and ornaments that decorate the table have to be painted in colour with the background and the parts that stand out in relief of gold. The principal subject is the birth of Amphitrite, who is surrounded by Tritons and dolphins.”

The cornice and lambrequin are unknown to the Directoire period; a pole ending in an arrow, or thyrsus, supports two curtains of calico, or silk. These curtains are relieved by a Greek border. The Empire taste demands a little more. Satins and velvets are added to the above. The drapery becomes very ample and beneath them are thin muslin curtains embroidered in dots, stars and squares. Sometimes two rods are used at each window to support the inner and outer curtains. A very fashionable method of furnishing the window was to have two curtains of silk and two of muslin. Decorative borders were used for these. The cornice is restored, and consists of the palm, the thyrsus, a bow, or a laurel wreath in gilded bronze, or painted wood. The colours of these draperies are limited. There are but five strong hues—crimson, green, blue, yellow and white—and there are no shades of these.

There was a tendency for patterns to become smaller; damask was ornamented with little figures, or stripes; Gobelin tapestries were supplanted by designs in grisaille on a red, blue, or green background. These many printed stuffs had pictures derived from Greek, Egyptian, or Roman subjects, or mythology, and appeared as if printed on paper.

The bed used during the Directoire was larger than the Louis XVI. bed.

Generally speaking, the beds were low; and were furnished with one or two mattresses. Some of them had head and footboards of equal height; others had only one headboard. During the Empire, the beds, most frequently of mahogany, were ornamented with gilded bronze trimmings. The frames were also painted with decorations painted in bronze effects. Some of the beds were rounded, or scrolled at the ends, some had pans À bateau and some had pilasters supporting vases, busts and even statuettes. The curtain was used. For some styles of beds, the curtains were cast negligently over an arrow. Beds were also made in forms appropriate to the calling of their owners. Some of the shapes seem to have been inspired by the models of Du Cerceau and BÉrain in the days of Louis XIV.; for instance, the boat and shell. In 1792, we hear of a bed shaped like a shell, with blue and white curtains. Lafayette had a bed like this.

The beds often had ends of heavy scrolls and most of them had the headboard and footboard of equal height. The round bolster appears at each end, or a cushion that follows the form of the scroll, as shown in the full drawing on Plate LXVIII. The canopy was frequently in the shape of a crown, and from it hung the curtains. The heavy curtain was not unfrequently accompanied with a thin diaphanous curtain that was formally draped.

The dining-room is decorated in stucco, or painted in imitation of marble. The furniture is mahogany. The chairs are covered with leather. The window-curtains are of “Persian” taffeta, cloth or cotton, trimmed with ball fringe. The dining-table is round or oval, and is often supported on the pillar-and-claw.

The dining-room table also is round, and stands on four feet decorated with lions’ heads or chimÆras; or again it is supported by the pillar-and-claw. The drawing-room table is frequently finished with a marble top, or it is covered with a cloth. Upon it stands a lamp with its shade.

A very ornate tea-table of porcelain brightened with gold and bronze appears on Plate LXV. Above it is shown the decorative top. This is by Percier and Fontaine. No. 6, on the same plate is another table; No. 7 is a tea-table; and No. 5 is another table. All of these are by Percier and Fontaine. Another kind of table designed by Percier was the table À fleurs, or jardiniÈre. Some of his models, which were made by Jacob Desmalters, are quite ornate. One of these is in the shape of a vase, supported by sphinxes, and filled with growing plants. Upon this stands another basin for growing flowers, or gold-fish, and above this again is a decorative figure. Another design is a round basin or vase for flowers supported by columns, on either side of which are smaller vases.

The console was a large square table decorated with sphinxes, or other ornaments in gilded bronze. Often a mirror was placed at the back framed by the legs.

The commode, like all the rest of the furniture, became more rigid in form and decoration. It was made of walnut or mahogany; and during the Directoire few were supplied with metal ornaments. Indeed, many of them had neither rings nor handles on the drawers. The form of the commode became still heavier during the Empire; but it was enlivened by ornate metal trimmings. A richly decorated commode by Percier and Fontaine appears as No. 2 on Plate LXVII. The chiffonniÈre, which had come into fashion during the last years of the Louis XVI. period, increased in popularity. It was generally a lady’s article containing drawers for writing and needlework. The marble top was often surrounded by a railing or gallery.

During the Empire, a set of drawing-room furniture consisted of one or two sofas, six arm-chairs, six chairs, two bergÈres and two tabourets. The sofas were placed on either side of the chimney-piece. One of the favourite varieties of the sofa was the canapÉ pommier, introduced during the Directoire. Its back was square and quite low, and was extended around the sides to take the place of arms. Sometimes the seat was garnished with fringe, and sometimes the wood was left plain.

The many varieties of the draped sofa disappeared. The Directoire and the Empire demanded that the forms of the settee, sofa, and chaise longue should be severe to accord with the arm-chairs. The back of the sofa was stuffed, but not the sides or wings. At each end was placed a feather pillow covered with the same material as the sofa. The most popular sofa had a square back that was carried around the seat, forming wings at each side instead of the elbow or arm. The new sofas were called MÉridienne and canapÉ pommier. Tapestry, figured satin, worsted damask or printed cloth, put on with braid, were used for coverings. At the end of the Empire period, the divan was introduced. This seat was suggested by the Eastern travellers.

The banquette was covered with velvet trimmed with gold or silk braid and fringe. The most fashionable chaise longue was of the kind upon which Madame RÉcamier is lounging in David’s celebrated portrait. Both ends of this piece were alike. One end of a similar piece of furniture appears as No. 2 on Plate LXV. The bergÈre en gondole was also popular. Its back was lower and more rounded than that of the bergÈre on Plate XLVIII., No. 3. Gondola-shaped chairs and bar-backed chairs and the heavy scrolled arm-chair were the favourites, also the double arm-chair.

The framework of chairs was generally mahogany, or painted and bronzed, and, for very rich homes, gilded wood. The square form was preferred, especially for the arm-chair, which rarely had cushions. Sometimes the front feet were in the sabre, or glaive shape. The shield shape too was used for the back and was ornamented with military trophies and laurel wreaths. The back and seat were stuffed, and braids and borders framed the cushions. The material used for covering was generally of a solid colour with a design printed on it. Silk velvet, damask, or satin was used. The design was often golden yellow. Sometimes back and seat were sprinkled with rosettes or stars. Braids were used to hide the nails. Printed cottons and worsted damasks were also used for cheaper upholstery work. Ball fringe was much used to go around the back.

Desk chairs kept somewhat to the rounded and gondola form. The seats were often a half circle, the feet turned or in the console shape. Sometimes they were even carved in the shape of chimÆra or lions whose heads came up to the level of the arms. The back, too, was frequently curved in the shape of a half circle. The top rail was sometimes covered like the seat,—in leather. Some of these turning up in the centre of the back like a cocked hat gave to them the name fauteuils Bonaparte. Mahogany was chiefly used for the frames, though oak and walnut were sometimes employed.

During the Directoire, the legs of the arm-chair were often X-shaped and the arms ended in a lion’s head. The open-backed chair was very popular. The one on Plate LXVIII., No. 2, is dated 1793; and Nos. 1, 3, and 5 are of the year 1796. The “Trafalgar” that persisted for so long was a development of No. 1. The chairs No. 1 and 3 on Plate LXV. are by Ch. Normand (b. 1765; d. 1830), who also designed the chaise longue, No. 2, on the same plate. Normand’s earlier work bridges the gulf between the styles Louis XVI. and the Empire.