Artist and Patrons: Court Art and Revolution in Brussels at the end of the Ancien Regime

Abstract

This article will consider certain art objects and underlying acts of patronage in the waning days of the ancien regime in Europe, partly through a trifecta of personalities who either produced or consumed art. Michel-Paul-Joseph Dewez (1742–1804) was a Brussels goldsmith and bronze caster; James Lockhart (1727–1790) was a Scottish military officer in the Austrian service and a court official; and Prince Charles Alexandre of Lorraine (1712–1780) was the governor general of the Austrian Netherlands from 1744 until his death in 1780. The works by Dewez that form the focus of this study include a pair of silver candlesticks that he made and Lockhart bought in about 1778, a rare survival from an age that ended in chaos and catastrophe as the ancien regime fell and revolutions erupted across Europe. Dewez also produced massive quantities of gilt bronze (ormolu) ornaments for a new Audience Chamber and Grand Salon commissioned by Prince Charles Alexandre of Lorraine for his Winter Palace in Brussels. While they lasted these rooms were among the most extraordinary courtly interiors in Europe. They have not survived, and with a few exceptions their sumptuous furnishings were also consumed in the fires of the French and Brabanconne Revolutions and their aftermaths. By assembling these stories of persons, things and their interrelationships into a single narrative, it is hoped that a soupçon more of light will be cast on a tumultuous time and its art, during the twilight years of the old Europe before the advent of the modern age.

Keywords:

• silver hallmarks
• ormolu
• Jacobites
• Count James Lockhart
• wild geese
• Prince Charles Alexandre of Lorraine
• Michel-Paul-Joseph Dewez
• Laurent-Benoit Dewez
• Neoclassicism
• Austrian Netherlands
• Winter Palace
• material culture

Notes

¹ The Grove Encyclopaedia of Medieval Art and Architecture, vol. 2, 448.

² W. Koeppe. “Imperial Aspirations and the Golden Age of Ceremony,” in In Vienna ca. 1780: An Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered. [Koeppe. Imp] (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 28.

³ Ibid. Koeppe illustrates a painting (1764) of the coronation banquet of Joseph II by Martin van Meytens, in which the imperial and electoral silver is shown displayed so (frontispiece). The imperial tableware depicted was delivered to the mint in in Vienna in 1797 to be turned into coin to pay the Habsburg armies during the French Revolutionary Wars.

⁴ Ibid., 16.

⁵ The Neue Galerie of New York City has posted a photo of exactly this chocolate pot along with photos of a group of later silver objects, together titled “Viennese Silver: Modern Design, 1780–1918,” http://bit.ly/1LLgh2R (accessed February 21, 2015).

⁶ Sir B. Bernard, The General Armoury of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (n.d.). Accessed on Google Books http://bit.ly/1CqvZdD

⁷ The engraving must therefore date to 1783 or later, as that is the year in which Lockhart’s title was created.

⁸ Charles Rogers, Monuments and Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland, vol. 3 (1871). From the inscription on James Lockhart’s funerary monument near Dryden in Scotland. Google Books http://bit.ly/1eFDrN4

⁹ The Lockhart Papers were published in 1817. Editor Anthony Aufrere was James Lockhart’s son in law, husband to his daughter Matilda. Aufrere also died in Pisa in 1834, where James Lockhart himself had died forty-four years earlier — perhaps at a family property? See The Annual Register, vol. 76 (1834) Edmund Burke, ed. Google Books http://bit.ly/1vBCWKM (accessed February 26, 2015).

¹⁰ S. Lockhart, “A Soldier of Fortune,” in Seven Centuries: The History of the Lockharts of Lee and Carnwath [SML/Lockhart] (256–271 (256), n.d.). S.F. MacDonald Lockhart. Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [BLKO] as quoted in SML/Lockhart.

¹¹ B. Rawson and C. Johnstone, A Memoir of the ‘Forty-Five’ (London: Folio Society, 1958), 244.

¹² SML/Lockhart, BLKO, 256.

¹³ SML/Lockhart, BLKO Ibid.

¹⁴ D. Szechi. “The Jacobite Diaspora, 1688–1678,” in The Jacobites: Britain and Europe 1688–1788 (Manchester: Manchester University Press) [Szechi. Jac]. Gives an excellent account of the Wild Geese. Szechi writes ‘[…] the Jacobites’ contribution to their host societies was out of all proportion to their numbers. It was primarily military, because that was the only marketable skill most Jacobites possessed’ […], 129.

¹⁵ Kunersdorf was the most crushing battlefield defeat ever suffered by Frederick the Great. According to BLKO, the Austrians’ success that day was ‘mainly due to him’ (Lockhart).

¹⁶ BLKO as quoted in SML/Lockhart, 258. James entered the ranks of the Knights of the Order of Maria Theresa on October 22, 1761.

¹⁷ SML/Lockhart, 232.

¹⁸ J. von Archenholz. “The History of the Seven Years War in Germany,” C. Jugel., 1843, 246.

¹⁹ C. Johnstone, F. Grahame, and I. Johnstone. The Historical Families of Dumfriesshire and the Border War [Border Wars], 184, 1889. This source also records, inaccurately but suggestively, that James was ‘made Viceroy of the Netherlands’. Google Books http://bit.ly/1LljGF4

²⁰ SML/Lockhart, 259. Also please see previous note.

²¹ Ibid.

²² Ibid.

²³ Szechi. Jac, 132.

²⁴ Sands, Brymer, Murray, & Cochrane. (1785). “Preferments, Prices of Grain, Mortality-bills, &c,” In The Scots Magazine (vol. 47, 312). It is notable that Lockhart’s military service in the Seven Years War was in aid of Austria. He was therefore campaigning against the British Hanoverian government’s Prussian ally. Google Books http://bit.ly/1c4FAj8

²⁵ In 1930 the Home Office compiled a list of the royal licenses to use foreign titles in the UK. Lockhart’s was one of only forty-nine such licenses granted up until 1896, when the practice was discontinued. See “List of Royal Licences for the use of Foreign Titles with Notes,” Home Office, May 21, 1930,’ http://bit.ly/1DIXjXC (accessed February 17, 2015).

²⁶ The HR Emperor Joseph II stood as godfather to James’s first son, also Joseph, who died in infancy. Border Wars, 184.

²⁷ X. Duquesne, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804) [MD. Duquesne] (Brussels: Xavier Duquesne, 2002). The attribution of the poincoin au cygne tenant un fruit dans son bec to Dewez is recent. Belgian art historian Duquesne has proven it in this excellent monograph on Dewez.

²⁸ His brothers Joseph and Francois were respectively architect and physician to the imperial court in Vienna. MD. Duquesne, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 8.

²⁹ A. Palmer, Historical Dictionary of Neoclassical Art and Architecture (n.d.), 75). http://bit.ly/18ci7LL (accessed February 21, 2015).

³⁰ Ibid. The Chateau de Seneffe is now a museum housing an important collection of period silverware.

³¹ At a later stage of his career, Michel’s atelier traded under the sign of La Toilette de la Dauphine, MD. Duquesne, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 20.

³² Ibid., 12.

³³ G. De Bellaigue, “The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes,” (1974): 850. London-Fribourg, [De Bellaigue], 850.

³⁴ MD. Duquesne, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 10.

³⁵ De Bellaigue, “The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes,” 850.

³⁶ De Bellaigue, “The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes,” 820. ‘Toymaker-goldsmith’. Michel had already been accepted as a ‘bourgeois de Bruxelles’ in 1772, thereby satisfying that requirement for his new position.

³⁷ D. Kisluk-Grosheide, W. Koeppe, and W. Reider, European Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Highlights of the Collection (London: Yale University Press, 2006). This privilege was also extended to certain court furniture makers in Paris: “As ebeneste du roi with private accommodations at the arsenal at Paris, Reisener was exempt from the guild regulations that prohibited ebenistes from casting or chasing their own mounts. He employed his own bronze workers, among the most notable of whom was Francois Remonde (1747–1812),” 198.

³⁸ Duquesne, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 9.

³⁹ Daniëlle O. Kisluk-Grosheide, The Art, Form, and Function of Gilt Bronze in the French Interior Metropolitan Museum of Art http://bit.ly/1LDMt68 (accessed February 24, 2015).

⁴⁰ ‘or moulu’ — ground gold.

⁴¹ R. Baarsen and L. De Ren, [Baarsen/de Ren] Ebenesterie’ at the Court of Charles of Lorraine 1223 ed., vol. 147, (London: The Burlington Magazine, n.d.), 91–9 (98).

⁴² R. Baarsen, Charles of Lorraine’s Audience Chamber in Brussels [BM. Baarsen]. 1228 ed., vol. 147. (London: The Burlington Magazine, n.d.), 463–72 (464).

⁴³ Ibid., 464.

⁴⁴ Some of the bronze mounted porcelains and a pair of wall lights that Michel made for the Grand Salon still survive in the keeping of the UK National Trust. They form a part of the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. De Bellaigue, “The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes,” 823–4.

⁴⁵ BM. Baarsen, Charles of Lorraine’s Audience Chamber in Brussels, 98.

⁴⁶ Ibid. see also note 42. Also, Baarsen and De Ren, Ebenisterie’ at the Court of Charles of Lorraine, 91–5 (91).

⁴⁷ Baarsen and de Ren, Ebenisterie’ at the Court of Charles of Lorraine, 91.

⁴⁸ Ibid., 91.

⁴⁹ D. Watkin. “Stuart and Revett: The Myth of Greece and Its Afterlife,” in James ‘Athenian’ Stuart 1713–1788: The Rediscovery of Antiquity (19–59), ed. S. Soros (New York: Yale University Press, 2007).

⁵⁰ R. Baarsen, “Neo-classicism in Furniture and Furnishings,” in Paris 1650–1900: Decorative Arts in the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam: Yale University Press, 2013). ‘It is of the essence of neo-classicism that it was based on a revered style from the past, the features and rules of which were described and illustrated in numerous publications, and the monuments of which served’ as prime sources of inspiration,’ 391.

⁵¹ Ibid. ‘[…] the early phase of neo-classicism known as gout grec, characterised by an aggressive reaction against the rococo.[…] the gout grec first appeared in the mid 1750s,’ 383.

⁵² BM. Baarsen, Charles of Lorraine’s Audience Chamber in Brussels, 464.

⁵³ Ibid., 465.

⁵⁴ Ibid. ‘It is characteristic [of Charles Alexandre] that he should have been attracted to such an unusual concept’.

⁵⁵ H. Michaelsen. “Painting in Wood: Innovations in Marquetry Decoration by the Roentgen Workshop,” in Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.), 228–33.

⁵⁶ W. Koeppe, “A Unique Relationship: Charles Alexandre of Lorraine and David Roentgen,” In Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens [Extravagant] (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.), 25–31, 29.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ Ibid. “The Panels are Overwhelming Specimens of Roentgen’s Famed marquetry la mosaique, Whereby Depth, Shading and Colours are Suggested by Different Pieces of Wood only, no Engraving or Scorching Being Employed,” 466.

⁵⁹ Ibid., 466. “Georg Adam, Prince Starhemberg (1724–1809), plenipotentiary minister in Brussels from 1770, noted after the prince’s death that the parquet floor was also beautifully executed: a contemporary report states that it was made of rosewood, hazel and yew and had an elaborate pattern.”

⁶⁰ Baarsen and De Ren, Ebenesterie’ at the Court of Charles of Lorraine, 98.

⁶¹ Ibid., 98.

⁶² Ibid.

⁶³ Ibid.

⁶⁴ BM Baarsen, Charles of Lorraine’s Audience Chamber in Brussels, 467.

⁶⁵ Ibid.

⁶⁶ To view images of these tabourets, visit the ‘Art Finding’ website here: http://bit.ly/1GntxZd (accessed August 1, 2015). Baarsen: ‘In their combination of rich materials, highly unusual in the case of seat furniture, the stools, and by implication the Audience Chamber as a whole, seem typical of Charles of Lorraine’s taste for the splendid, the colourful and the unprecedented.’ Baarsen and De Ren, Ebenesterie’ at the Court of Charles of Lorraine, 99.

⁶⁷ BM Baarsen, Charles of Lorraine’s Audience Chamber in Brussels, 469.

⁶⁸ Ibid.

⁶⁹ Ibid., 472.

⁷⁰ De Bellaigue, “The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes,” 850. Michel received commissions for ‘tabernacles, crucifixes, candelabra etc. from the monasteries of Heylissim, Floreffe, Orval and Bonne-Esperance’.

⁷¹ Duquesne, Michel Dewez: Orfèvre et Bronzier de la Cour (1742–1804). It is because of these candleholders and a surviving invoice for their production that this writer was able to attribute Michel’s poincon, 39.

⁷² Ibid., 43–7.

⁷³ The candlesticks were purchased, unidentified, at a regional antiques auction in Vancouver, Canada, in 2002.

⁷⁴ Duquesne MD, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 47.

⁷⁵ Duquesne MD. Translation: ‘In 1784 Dewez’s atelier counted among the most important in Brussels, with five companions and an apprentice working there,’ 20.

⁷⁶ Kevin Brown, The Lockhart Candlesticks: Silver Artefacts as Historical Documents http://bit.ly/1AnqFfy

⁷⁷ See the Chateau de Seneffe website http://bit.ly/1ItlDMm

⁷⁸ Koeppe. Imp, 12.

⁷⁹ D. Beales, “Josephism Rampant II Lay Education and a New Catholicism,” In Joseph II: Against the World 1780–1790. [Beales. Jos] (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 307–31.

⁸⁰ Ibid.

⁸¹ Beales, “Josephism Rampant II Lay Education and a New Catholicism,” 307–31.

⁸² James Lockhart was the first protestant ever to serve as a Lord of the Bedchamber at the court of Vienna.

⁸³ D. Beales, Mozart and the Habsburgs: The Stenton Lecture (Reading: University of Reading, 1992), 13.

⁸⁴ Ibid. ‘In secular affairs he tried to impose a uniform legal and administrative system on all his diverse dominions, which meant destroying the ancient constitutions of Belgium and Hungary.’

⁸⁵ A. Johnson. Louis XVI and the French Revolution (n.d.), 33, Google Books http://bit.ly/1Ld89tW

⁸⁶ M. Rapport, “Michael Rapport, Belgium under French Occupation: Between Collaboration and Resistance,” French History 16, no. 1 (n.d.): 53–82, 60, July 1794–October 1795.

⁸⁷ D. O’Flaherty, “Sketches of the Commotions and Disorders in the Austrian Netherlands, Including Transactions from the First of April 1787,” [O’Flaherty SK] (London: J. Johnson, 1787), 26.

⁸⁸ Rapport BF Ibid., 11.

⁸⁹ O’Flaherty SK, “Sketches of the Commotions and Disorders in the Austrian Netherlands, Including Transactions from the First of April 1787,” 28.

⁹⁰ Ibid.

⁹¹ Rapport BF Ibid.

⁹² S. Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (n.d.), 343.

⁹³ Koeppe. Imp, 23.

⁹⁴ V. Bucken, Veronique Bucken, La collection d’orfèvrerie européenne Claude et Juliette d’Allemagne (1995), 56–7.

⁹⁵ Duquesne MD, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 20.

⁹⁶ C. Brebbia, Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture. Heritage Architecture, XII (2011). http://bit.ly/1JkRYug (accessed June 25, 2015).

⁹⁷ Ibid.

⁹⁸ See note 73.

⁹⁹ Duquesne MD, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 21.These included investments in colonial ventures (in Cayenne), and co-investing with Laurent in the projected renovation of a military academy.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid., 22.

¹⁰¹ Ibid., 20.

¹⁰² Ibid., 21.

¹⁰³ Ibid., 23.

¹⁰⁴ De Bellaigue, “The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes,” 851.

¹⁰⁵ Duquesne MD, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 23.

¹⁰⁶ The ‘Abercorn desk’ in the Wallace Collection (London) is believed have been made for the Audience Chamber. Baarsen has convincingly attributed it to Godtfried Weber (ebeniste) and Michel Dewez. The Count de Seneffe, who commissioned the Chateau de Seneffe from Laurent Dewez, bought it at the 1781 sale of the prince’s effects. Baarsen BM, 464.

¹⁰⁷ Various furnishings, including stools and side tables, were sent to Vienna either during the dispersal of Charles Alexandre’s effects or during the French invasion.

¹⁰⁸ BM Baarsen, Charles of Lorraine’s Audience Chamber in Brussels, 472.

¹⁰⁹ Ibid.

¹¹⁰ Baarsen, “A Unique Relationship: Charles Alexandre of Lorraine and David Roentgen. In Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens,” (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art), 29. The last Austrian governor of Belgium removed Roentgen’s Audience Chamber panels to Vienna in 1795. Today they are in the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art.

¹¹¹ James Lockhart’s will is on file in the Public Records Office of the National Archives. His son Charles was his heir.

¹¹² Ormolu, which is rarely marked, is a good example.

¹¹³ The ‘Place of Money’. According to Duquesne, Michel died sans doute mine par son infortune et par les emanations de mercure lors de la dorure au feu de ses bronzes. MD Duquesne, Michel Dewez, Orfèvre et bronzier de la cour (1742–1804), 23.

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Kevin Brown

Kevin Brown is an independent scholar who lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland.