A PAIR OF 18TH CENTURY, LOUIS XV FAUTEUILS A LA REINE'.  BY JEAN-BAPTISTE BOULARD. CIRCA 1750.

Each with ribbon-carved frame, padded cartouche-shaped back, scrolling arms and shaped seat, upholstered in a silk wool tapestry featuring decorative foliate, floral design, over a moulded serpentine seat-rail centrally carved with flower-heads and leafy sprays, on cabriole legs headed by twin flower-heads and pendant leaves.  Stamped BY JB BOULARD. Louis XV period. Circa 1750

H: 92 cm; W: 67 cm;  D: 65cm.

Jean-Baptiste Boulard (died 1789)

Parisian menuisier – Became a maitre on April 17, 1754

Workshop in the Rue de Clery.

There he built up a distinguished reputation, which in 1777 earned him appointment as fournisseur-ordinaire du Mobilier de la Couronne. Thenceforward until his death he continued to supply considerable quantities of furniture to the Garde-Meuble for use in the various royal palaces.

Amongst the most important of these was a  lit a colonnes made about 1785 for Louis XVI’s use at Fontainebleau. This has disappeared, but a lit a la Polonaise, which he delivered in 1785 for use in Louis XVI’s bathroom at Compiegne, survives at the Petit Trianon; he also made the bed used by Gustavus III of Sweden during his stay at Versailles in 1784.

Boulard also provided a large table for the king’s council chamber at Versailles. But the greater part of his output consisted of chairs. Amongst his royal commissions, surviving at any rate in part, are a set of chairs made in 1786 for the Salon de Jeu at Fontainebleau (Wallace Collection, catalogue nos. F 233-238; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jules S. Bache Collection, 45.60.44-46), part of a richly carved suite ordered in 1784-178 5 for Louis XVI’s Cabinet at Compiegne (Louvre), part of a large set of chairs made for the king’s dining room at Versailles in 1786 (French private collection), a sofa made for Marie-Antoinette’s Cabinet at the Tuileries in 1784 (French private collection), and the frame of the screen made for Louis XVI’s bedchamber at Compiegne (Louvre).

These, like most of his productions, are in the Louis XVI style, but he occasionally worked in a more rococo manner. In addition, he worked for Mmes Louise and Elisabeth, the Comte d’Artois, the Comte and Comtesse de Provence, and the Duchesse de Polignac.

Boulard frequently collaborated on royal commissions with J.-B. Sene and Jean-Baptiste II Tilliard. The carving of his chairs was executed by various sculpteurs, but the gilding of them was generally done by Bardou, who lived near him in the Rue de Clery. Although surpassed as an artist by J.-B. Sene, Boulard was one of the great Parisian menuisiers of the latter part of the eighteenth century.

He used two stamps, a larger one reading JB BOULARD, and a smaller one (perhaps the earlier) with small fleurs-de-lys between the initials and before the surname.

Not long before his death on March 29, 1789, Boulard was elected a conseilleur of the Corporation des Menuisiers-Ebenistes.

His widow, Anne-Louise Gillet (died 1808), carried on the establishment and supplied furniture to the Garde-Meuble down to the fall of the monarchy.

During the Empire and Restoration periods the business in the Rue de Clery was continued successfully by his descendants and closed down finally only in 1832.

Menuisier parisien, Jean-Baptiste Boulard, aprés avoir obtenu sa maîtrise en 1754, s'installe rue de Cléry et gagne trés vite, grâce à la la qualité et à l'originalité de ses oeuvres, une grande réputation. Ses productions, dans le style Louis XV, sont nombreuses : bergères, chaises, fauteuils, cannès ou revêtus de tissu, l'ensemble toujours fabriqué avec le plus grand soin et exécuté dans les plus beaux bois. Mais, c'est surtout à partir de 1777 que Jean-Baptiste Boulard se fait connaitre, en devenant èbeniste du Roi pour qui il travaille alors assidûment, essentiellement dans le style Louis XVI sans signe particulier si ce n'est des sculptures de palmette plissée que l'on retrouve assez souvent au sommet des pieds de ses siéges. A part les abondantes commandes du Garde Meuble, il travaille aussi pour une clientéle privée plus modeste pour laquelle il exécute des sièges amples et confortables, aux belles proportions, simplement ornés de sobres sculptures. Après sa mort, sa femme continuera à pourvoir les nombreuses demandes de la couronne jusqu'en 1792 puis celles de la cour impériale jusqu'en 1808. C'est son fils, Michel Jacques, qui lui succédera et qui travaillera rue de Cléry jusqu'en 1823.