Drawing on Japan
Ceramics designed by the artist Félix Bracquemond pioneered the use of motifs drawn from Japanese art in 19th-century French decorative arts. Larry Simms publishes here two extraordinary overlooked porcelain services by Bracquemond that add greatly to our understanding of his career.
Larry Simms, Monday, 25th August 2008
On the other hand, the Service figures et accessoires japonais has a few noticeable differences from the earlier Service Rousseau. The former was produced in porcelain rather than faience. The whiteness of the translucent Limoges porcelain used by Haviland and Company provides a sharper contrast to the hand painted transfer images than the grey-white of the opaque faience. Also, the geisha service includes colours and colour juxtapositions that are not in the Service Rousseau. This wider palette more aptly mirrors the colours used in the Japanese prints from which Bracquemond borrowed. Further, the decorative treatment of the ceramics’ outer edge has also changed. The plates have either an undecorated edge or a narrow banding that is less intrusive than the feathered blue edging on the Service Rousseau. As a result, the Japoniste images are more prominent in the overall design.
Fixing the exact date of the Service figures et accessoires japonais might seem problematic at first. Although the print known as Treize grâces japonaises was made around 1870 and Bracquemond was installed as artistic director of Haviland’s Auteuil Atelier in 1872, this service was not illustrated until seven years later – in three separate pages of Tarif des porcelaines et des faience de Haviland & Co, published in 1879.11 However, there are indications that this service was in production earlier. In a letter dated 21 April 1873 to Bracquemond, Charles Haviland wrote, ‘On nous demande de New York les décors suivants pour toilettes:…des sujets japonais, femmes, enfants etc.’12 Haviland is asking Bracquemond to work on transfer designs of Japanese images for the possible production of a toilet set. Produced for inclusion in the large Haviland and Company display at the Philadelphia 1876 Centennial Exhibition, this toilet set (present location unknown) most likely used the same décor as the Service figures et accessoires japonais. The us Customs Invoice of Porcelains in Philadelphia Exhibition Imported by Haviland & Co. lists a five-piece toilet set, number 208, ‘1 Set composed of Sujets japonais’ as well as a set of cups and saucers, number 216, ‘1 Set composed of 2 prs Coffees, 4 prs A D [after dinner] Coffees, 2 prs Teas Japanese.’ Although no photograph by the Centennial Photographic Company of these two invoiced sets exits, the two invoice entries, together with Haviland’s 1873 letter to Bracquemond, give credibility to the likelihood that both invoiced sets were part of the new décor known as Service figures et accessoires japonais.13 These invoice entries would then not only put this Japoniste set in the Haviland and Company booth at the Centennial Exhibition but also date it as 1876 or earlier.
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