French Taste from 1800 to 1900
During the nineteenth century French taste reflected the social and political trends of the period; but it was also much influenced, writes Brian Reade, by the work of English craftsmen.
The neo-classic style lasted in France, as in most other European countries, until about 1840, by which time it was still living, but no longer fashionable.
It had been conceived by the antiquarians of the eighteenth century, and it made a sympathetic background to Republicanism during the Revolutionary period.
But with the rise of Napoleon, its character changed. Already by 1804 it had become imperial.
Military motifs, such as lances, sabres and axes, sprang forth alongside Classical palmettes and caryatides in the new furniture of the Empire: gilding and ormolu, which had been used sparingly in the 1790’s, returned to encrust more geometrical, more archaeological shapes.
Long before Waterloo, it was clear that no other monarch since Louis XIV had taken such a lead as Napoleon in creating the style of his environment.
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