Gilles Joubert

Gilles Joubert (1689 — 1775) was a Parisian "ébéniste" who worked for the "Garde-Meuble" of Louis XV for two and a half decades, beginning in 1748, earning the title "ébéniste ordinaire du Garde-Meuble" ["Cabinet-maker in ordinary to the Wardrobe"] in 1758, and finally that of "ébéniste du roi" ("royal cabinet-maker") on the death of Jean-François Oeben in 1763. He produced case-furniture in a robust Rococo style, ranging from simple veneered "bidets" to grand commodes that integrated gilt-bronze mounts into the forms of furniture with subtle three-dimensional curves ("bombé"). From the later 1760s his furniture increasingly shows a conservative compromise with the nascent neoclassical style.

The date of Joubert's admission to the "corporation des maiîtres ébénistes" is missing, along with the early guild archives, but he was already syndic in 1749-50.

Much of his furniture was produced before Parisian guild regulations required "ébénistes" to stamp their production, and pieces intended for the royal "Garde-Meuble" were exempt from such regulations; [Pierre Verlet, "Les Ebénistes du XVIII siècle français."] however, the minutely-detailed inventory descriptions of the "Garde-Meuble de la Couronne" and inventory numbers stencilled on surviving furniture have enabled scholars to identify a number of pieces from Joubert's workshop. Francis Watson suggested that Joubert's marriage to a relative of Pierre II Migeon, a favoured cabinet-maker of Mme de Pompadour, may have brought him to her attention and likely through her to court commissions. [Watson, "The Wrightsman Collection" II (New York:Metropolitan Museum of Art) 1966, p. 551.] For the Château de Choisy he produced, with the engineer Guérin, the famous "table volante" that rose through the floor for private suppers. In the decade following 1763 he supplied 2200 pieces of furniture to the court; under the pressure of such a volume of commissions, he was obliged to subcontract even some important pieces of furniture: the roll-top desk he delivered to the comtesse de Provence, 30 December 1773, (Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon) was actually made by Jean Henri Riesener, [Pierre Verlet, "Objets d'art français de la collection de Calouste Gulbenkian" (Lisbon) 1969, no 5.] who would succeed him as "ébéniste du roi". In the Frick Collection, New York, is a royal commode delivered by Joubert in 1769 but stamped by Roger Vandercruse Lacroix. [Theodore Dell, "The Frick Collection: 5. Furniture" (New York) 1992, pp 334-50.]

Among his most celebrated pieces are the corner cupboards ("encoignures") made in 1755 for Louis XV's "Cabinet de Médailles" at Versailles (Bibliothèque National). Not all the furniture delivered by Joubert received a favourable reception: a bombé commode painted with flowers on a white Vernis Martin ground (now yellowed), with "silvered"-bronze mounts, delivered 11 January 1755 for Madame Adelaïde at Versailles, was returned to the "Garde-Meuble" the same day. [It was purchased for Versailles in 1965, though the apartment for which it was intended no longer exists, replaced by Louis XVI's library. Marguerite Jallut, "A Commode by Joubert" "The Burlington Magazine" 108 No. 764 (November 1966), pp. 573-575.]

In June 1774 [Louis XV had died the previous month.] the octogenarian Joubert contracted with Riesener to assign the younger man his workshop and its contents with the good will of his clientele. [Pierre Verlet, "Möbel von J.H. Riesener" (Darmstadt) 1955, p. 6.]

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External links

* [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=859 (Getty Museum) Gilles Joubert: commode 1769]
* [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ffurn/ho_1973.315.1.htm (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Gilles Joubert: japanned bureau plat for Louis XV's "Cabinet Intérieur", Versailles,, 1759]