Fireplace screen with Chinoiserie

other

Originally mounted as a screen to cover a fireplace during warm weather, in this exotic painting the artist has transformed the hearth into a miniature stage. Three fanciful Chinese characters hold aloft a circular screen on which is depicted the mythological story of Zeus showering Dana with gold. A pair of figures, painted in grisaille on the side wall, incise their names on a tree trunk, a motif symbolizing eternal love.

Loading map…

About the Artist

Jacques Vigoureux-duplessis

French painter and decorative designer. Little is known of his early training. About 1710 he was working for the Académie Royale de Musique and painting designs for scenery for the Paris Opera. In 1719 he was living in Beauvais and two years later he was working there as an instructor at the tapestry factory. He was required to produce six cartoons a year, few of which still survive. He was succeeded in 1726 by Jean-Baptiste Oudry. Some of his signed and dated work, however, can be seen in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Fontaine-Chaalis, in Glasgow and at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. His work was chiefly decorative, including tapestries, furniture, wood-carvings, screens and fire-screens in a Chinese style.

View all works →