Martin Carlin
Encyclopedia
Ébéniste
Ébéniste is the French word for a cabinetmaker, whereas in French menuisier denotes a woodcarver or chairmaker. The English equivalent for "ébéniste," "ebonist," is never commonly used. Originally, an ébéniste was one who worked with ebony, a favoured luxury wood for mid-seventeenth century...
, born at Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
, who was received master at Paris in 1766.
Carlin worked at first in the shop of Jean-François Oeben
Jean-François Oeben
Jean-François Oeben, or Johann Franz Oeben was a French cabinetmaker whose career was spent in Paris. He is the maternal grandfather of the painter Eugène Delacroix....
, whose sister he married. He set up independently in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, an unfashionable quarter of Paris, where few of his wealthy clientele would have penetrated. Carlin sold his works exclusively to marchands-merciers
Marchand-mercier
A marchand-mercier is a French term for a type of entrepreneur working outside the guild system of craftsmen but carefully constrained by the regulations of a corporation under rules codified in 1613.. The reduplicative term literally means a merchant of merchandise, but in the 18th century took...
such as Simon-Philippe Poirier and his partner Dominique Daguerre
Dominique Daguerre
Dominique Daguerre was a Parisian marchand-mercier who was in partnership from 1772 with Simon-Philippe Poirier, an arbiter of taste and the inventor of furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques; Daguerre assumed Poirier's business at La Couronne d'Or in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1777/78...
, who acted as decorator-designers. It was only through these entrepreneurs that Carlin could acquire the Sèvres porcelain plaques that decorate many of his pieces. His earliest such pieces are datable by the marks on their porcelain to 1766; they followed designs supplied by the dealer Poirier. Although Martin Carlin made some larger pieces— secrétaires à abattant (drop-front secretary desks), tables, and commodes— he is best known for refined small furnishings in neoclassical taste
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
, some of them veneered with cut up panels of Chinese lacquer
Lacquer
In a general sense, lacquer is a somewhat imprecise term for a clear or coloured varnish that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss and that can be further polished as required...
, which he would also have received from the hands of the marchands-merciers.
Collection
Bonheur du jour (Table à gradin dite )- Bonheur du jour, 1765, Bowes MuseumBowes MuseumThe Bowes Museum has a nationally renowned art collection and is situated in the town of Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham, England.The museum contains an El Greco, paintings by Francisco Goya, Canaletto, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher and a sizable collection of decorative art,...
, UK - Bonheur du jour, 1766, Musée Nissim de CamondoMusée Nissim de CamondoThe Musée Nissim de Camondo is a non-profit house museum located in the Hôtel Camondo, 63, rue de Monceau, at the edge of the Parc Monceau, VIIIe arrondissement, Paris, France....
, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... - Bonheur du jour, 1766, Waddesdon ManorWaddesdon ManorWaddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...
, UK - Bonheur du jour, 1768, Boughton HouseBoughton HouseBoughton House is a country house about north-east of Kettering off the A43 road near Geddington in Northamptonshire, England, which belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch.-History:...
, UK - Bonheur du jour, 1768, delivered to the Comtesse du Barry, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
- Bonheur du jour, 1769, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
- Bonheur du jour, 1770, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
- Bonheur du jour, 1770, The Huntington LibraryThe Huntington LibraryThe Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens is an educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington in San Marino, in the San Rafael Hills near Pasadena, California in the United States...
, USA - Bonheur du jour, 1770, Waddesdon ManorWaddesdon ManorWaddesdon Manor is a country house in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. The house was built in the Neo-Renaissance style of a French château between 1874 and 1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild . Since this was the preferred style of the Rothschilds it became also known as...
, UK - Bonheur du jour, 1771, The Huntington LibraryThe Huntington LibraryThe Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens is an educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington in San Marino, in the San Rafael Hills near Pasadena, California in the United States...
, USA - Bonheur du jour, 1774, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
Bureau plat
- Bureau plat, 1778, delivered to the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia for the Palace of Pavlosk, Getty Museum, USA
Cabinet
- Cabinet, c. 1783, Royal CollectionRoyal CollectionThe Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation. It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical...
, UK
Coffret à bijoux
- Coffret à bijoux, 1770, delivered to Marie-Antoinette for the Petit Triannon, Château de Versailles, FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
- Coffret à bijoux, c. 1770, delivered to the Comtesse du Barry, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
- Coffret à bijoux, c. 1774, delivered to the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia for the Palace of Pavlosk, Detroit Museum of Art, USA
- Coffret à bijoux, c. 1775, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
- Coffret à bijoux, c. 1775, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
Commode à vantaux
- Commode à vantaux, c. 1778, inset with Pietra Dure panels (one of Carlin's greatest examples), Royal CollectionRoyal CollectionThe Royal Collection is the art collection of the British Royal Family. It is property of the monarch as sovereign, but is held in trust for her successors and the nation. It contains over 7,000 paintings, 40,000 watercolours and drawings, and about 150,000 old master prints, as well as historical...
, UK
Encoignure
- Paire de Encoignure, 1772, Wallace CollectionWallace 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...
, UK
Music-stand
- Music-stand, 1770-75, Getty Museum, USA
Music-stand and writing-table
- Music-stand and writing-table, 1786, given by Marie-Antoinette to Mrs William Eden (later Lady Auckland), V&A, UK
Reading stand
- Reading stand, c. 1780, V&A, UK
Secrétaire
- Secrétaire, 1775, Getty Museum, USA
- Secrétaire, 1776, Wallace CollectionWallace 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...
, UK - Secrétaire, 1776-77, Getty Museum, USA
Secrétaire à abattant
- Secrétaire à abattant, 1770-80, V&A, UK
Table à ouvrage
- Table à ouvrage, 1770. delivered to the duchesse de Mazarin in 1779 for her dressing room, Getty Museum, USA
- Table à ouvrage, 1773, Getty Museum, USA
- Table à ouvrage, 1775, V&A, UK
- Table à ouvrage, 1783-84, Wallace CollectionWallace 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...
, UK - Table à ouvrage, 1786, given by Marie-Antoinette to Mrs William Eden (later Lady Auckland), V&A, UK
External links
- (Getty Museum): Martin Carlin
- (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Bonheur-du-jour with Sèvres plaques, 1768
- (Royal Collection) Commode, ca 1778, with panels of pietra duraPietra duraPietra dura or pietre dure , called parchin kari in South Asia, is a term for the technique of using cut and fitted, highly-polished colored stones to create images. It is considered a decorative art...
.