Joseph Dufour et Cie explained

Joseph Dufour et Cie, founded in 1797 by Joseph and Pierre Dufour, was a French painted wallpaper and fabrics manufacturer located in Mâcon, France.

General

In 1806, in collaboration with the artist Jean-Gabriel Charvet, Dufour et Cie produced a twenty-panel set of scenic wallpaper entitled, which became the biggest success of the company. It was the largest panoramic wallpaper of its time, and marked the burgeoning of a French industry in panoramic wallpapers. Dufour realized almost immediate success from the sale of these papers and enjoyed a lively trade with America. Like most of eighteenth century wallpapers, the panorama was designed to be hung above a dado.

History

For many years it was believed that Joseph Dufour was born in 1752. An error in his place of birth was the source of the mistake. Indeed, another Joseph Dufour was born in Mâcon, in 1752, whilst the founder of the manufacture was born in Tramayes in 1757 as the second child of Claude Dufour and Francoise Braillon.

Joseph Dufour trained in the wallpaper industry and worked in Lyon, which was a center for both the textile and wallpaper industries. In 1797, Joseph Dufour started the company together with his brother Pierre in Macon, Rue de la Paroisse. The designer Jean-Gabriel Charvet, renowned in Lyon, worked for them. Their first few years were not very successful; in 1800 they went into liquidation and Pierre left the company. By 1801, the business was operating under the name Joseph Dufour et Cie.

Then the company picked up rapidly, and in 1805 the company employed more than 90 workers. Following the success of at the Fourth Exhibition of Products of the French Industry in 1806, Joseph Dufour moved to Paris in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. His company rapidly became famous in Europe and America not only for its panoramics but also for its repeating wallpaper. The company employed the talent of famous designers such as Xavier Mader and Evarist Fragonard.

Joseph Dufour died in Paris 1827. His son-in-law took on the business but sold it a few years later. The wood-blocks were scattered.

Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique

Captain Cook first sailed from England to the South Seas in 1769. He made three expeditions before his death in 1779, and his adventures captured the imaginations of many Europeans at a time when there was considerable interest in the "primitive" and "exotic". His discoveries lent support to the prevailing notion of the inherent moral superiority of "the noble savage", an idea expressed in the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). In 1784, accounts of Cook's voyages were set forth in an official three-volume publication. Accompanying this was a separate folio atlas containing 61 engravings of landscapes, portraits, and indigenous artifacts.

In 1806 Joseph Dufour et Cie, in collaboration with the designer Jean-Gabriel Charvet, produced a twenty-panel set of scenic wallpaper entitled , depicting Cook's travels. The wallpaper was printed in color from multiple woodblocks. Machine-made continuous paper, just invented, was not yet commercially available when Dufour undertook his project. Instead, small rectangular handmade sheets were joined at the edges to form long rolls, which were later cut to the desired length (approximately 24 by 98 inches or 61 × 249 cm). A toned, water-based ground layer was then applied by brush to the entire panel to act as an undercoat for subsequent printing. This light blue layer also served as the sky tone in unprinted areas. Designs for each color were carved on separate blocks, and as many as sixty were required to print a single panel. The design was then enhanced with stenciled hand-painted gouache.

The panels show many historical events loosely based on the reports of James Cook and La Pérouse and drawings made by members of their crews. Some of the figures of Pacific Islanders were based upon frescoes from ancient Pompei, which had been rediscovered in 1748, and others upon well-known Greek and Roman sculptures.

Panel descriptions

A description of the individual panels follows:

The Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Historic Deerfield (Deerfield, Massachusetts), the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco usually have Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique on display.

References

External links

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