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Servandoni's Successors at the French Opera: Boucher, Boquet, Algieri, Girault

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

Bert O. States
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Extract

The work of those designers who followed Jean Nicolas Servandoni (1695–1766) at the Royal Academy of Music, at Court, and elsewhere in Paris, is, like his own, preserved only in the pages of Le Mercure de France, L'Avant-Coureur, and other journals and memoirs. While the museums abound in easel canvases and drawings by François Boucher (1703–1770), we are hard-pressed to find one print which has even a remote connection with the stage. On the other hand, we have several volumes of costume sketches and a few scene prints by Louis-René Boquet (1717–1814) which give us a rather good impression of at least one side of his style. Unfortunately, the work of the men who may have been more influenced by Servandoni than any others—Pietro Algieri, Louis-Alexandre Girault, Antoine de Machy, Tremblin, Baudon, Guillet, Moulin, de Leuze, Canot, Lallemand, Spurney, etc.—is probably lost to the eye forever. Their careers, which took place in an extravagant age of theatrical design, must be pieced together from scattered paragraphs in the Paris periodicals. In most cases, we cannot even assign dates to the spans of their activities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 3 , May 1962 , pp. 41 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1962

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References

NOTES

1. A periodical much like the Mercure in format and style, quite rare, published between 1760 and 1763.

2. See Décugis, Nicole, et Reymond, Suzanne, Le décor de théâtre en France du moyen âge à 1925 (Paris, 1953), p. 96.Google Scholar Also, Deryck Lynham's The Chevalier Noverre (New York, n.d.) reproduces a painting by Boucher titled Danse Chinoise which is preserved in the Musée de Bescanson, p. 19. These have only a conjectural association with the theatre, however. Paul Mantz offers a theory that Boucher also designed a curtain for Monnet's Foire theatre, the sketch of which perhaps survives in Apollon Présidé à la Danse et aux Chansons, opp. p. 104 of François Boucher (Paris, 1880).

3. Portfolio at the Bibliothèque de M. Paignon-Dijonval, Paris, 1822, in-8°, no 934. The two widely known Chinese prints appear in Décugis.

4. See Tessier, André, “Les Habits d'Opéra au XVIIIe siècle: Louis Boquet, Déssinateur et Inspecteur Général des Menus-Plaisirs,” Revue de l'Art ancien el moderne, XLIX (Jan.-Mai, 1926), 15–26, 89–100, 173–184.Google Scholar

5. The Louvre possesses a single easel printing, Pay sage avec ruines; the Cabinet des Estampes de Bruxelles possesses four theatrical drawings ascribed to Servandoni, though doubtful; in the Albertina Library in Vienna exist two famous sketches of a besieged city for an unidentified opera; in the collection of the Marquise de Castelbajac, Paris, are two mounted decors, a Chinese Temple and an Enclosed Garden, which are perhaps from his hand; there are several examples of his machines for the feu d'artifice exhibitions, several attributed croquis, pen and ink, and assorted sketches and drawings which, for various reasons, are connected with him; finally, Mr. Donald Oenslager owns a volume of pen and ink sketches which have been passed from one collector to another since the eighteenth century and are traditionally assigned to Servandoni, without obvious evidence. Louis Dimier lists other works by Servandoni without mentioning his authority. (See Les Peintres Français (Paris, 1930), II, 380–392, passim.)

6. A manuscript at the Archives of the Opera titled “Memoires pour servir à l'histoire de l'Academie” contains an entry which definitely sets Boucher's appointment in the year 1744 at a salary of 2000 livres. The manuscript also mentions that he worked at the Opéra during 1737, 1738, and 1739, no doubt assisting Servandoni. He was recommended in August 1744 as Chief Designer and continued in that capacity until July 1, 1748. “Le sieur Boucher,” the entry continues “lui a succede [Servandoni] pendant quelque temps, mais, reconnaissant que ce n'était pas la son genre, il l'a abandonne.” Quoted from Fischer, Carlos, Les Costumes de l'Opéra (Paris, 1931), p. 62.Google Scholar

7. Michel, André, François Boucher (Paris, n.d.), esp. pp. 59–61, 127–128.Google Scholar

8. Mantz, Paul, François Boucher, Lemoyne et Natoire (Paris, 1880), esp. pp. 100–106.Google Scholar

9. The following offer lists of Boucher's work for the theatre: Edmond, et Goncourt, Jules de, L'Art du Dix-huitième Siècle, I (Paris, 1874), 177–254Google Scholar; Grande encyclopèdie inventaire raisonnè des sciences, des lettres et des arts, VII (Paris, 1886), 542–544; DuPeloux, Vicompte Charles, Repertoire biographique et bibliographique des artistes du XVIIIe siècle Français (Paris, 1930), pp. 12–14Google Scholar; Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo, II (Rome, 1954), 898–899; Tintelnot, Hans, Barock-theater und Barocke Kunst (Berlin, 1939), 185ff., 237Google Scholar, 246, 260, 290, 300. Further biographical sources include: Diderot, Denis, Oeuvres complètes (Paris, 1875), XGoogle Scholar, XI, Salons de 1759, 1761, 1763, 1765, 1767; Grimm, , Diderot, , etc., Correspondence littéraire… (Paris, 1877), I, 297Google Scholar; IX, 58–60; Monnet, Jean, Supplement au roman comique (London, 1772)Google Scholar, passim.

10. Gougenot, Abbé Jean, Lettre sur la peinture, la sculpture, et l'architecture à M.*** (Amsterdam, 1749), p. 52.Google Scholar

11. Ibid., pp. 50–51.

12. Mercure, Decembre 1761, p. 179. L'Avant-coureur review is quoted in Charles Maiherbe, “Les Costumes et Décors d' Armide,” Bulletin de la société de l'histoire du Théâtre, II (Avril, 1902), 29. Raynal said of him, “Boucher, qui est le meilleur peintre que nous ayons pour le gracieux, dirigeait assez mal les decorations de l'Opéra, parce qu'il n'entendait pas la perspective.” Correspondance littéraire, I, 297.

13. Mercure, July 1764, pp. 182–184.

14. Rameau, Jean-Philippe, Oeuvres complètes (Paris, 1895+), IX, xl.Google Scholar

15. Encyclopedic, X, 449.

16. See Ferté, Papillon de La, Journal, 1756–1780 (Paris, 1887), pp. 148–149.Google Scholar

17. Mercure, Mai 1766, pp. 184–185.

18. Collé, Charles, Journal et métnoires (Paris, 1868), III, 172.Google Scholar

19. See The Chevalier Noverre, p. 30.

20. Journal Etranger, ouvrage périodique (par M. Freron), II (Decembre 1755), 224–225.

21. The portfolio at the Bibliothèque de M. Paignon-Dijonval.

22. Collé, III, 117–118.

23. Mercure, Novembre 1766, pp. 183–184.

24. Guiffrey, J. J., “Les peintres décorateurs du XVIIIe siècle: Servandoni, Brunetti, Tramblin, etc., etc., Notes inédits de Favart,” Nouvelles archives de l'art Français, III (Paris, 1887), 121.Google Scholar

25. Algieri's known productions are: At the Opera, Platée (1749), Nais (1749), Zoroastre (1749), Hippolyte et Aricie (1757), Alceste (1757), Armide (1761); at the Comédie Italienne, Fées rivales (?) (1748).

26. Anecdotes dramatiques (Paris, 1775), II, 283.

27. Grimm, I, 385.

28. Favart, Charles, Mémoires et correspondance, littéraires dramatiques et anecdotiques (Paris, 1808), I, 208–209.Google Scholar

29. Gougenot, p. 51.

30. Mercure, Decembre 1761, p. 180.

31. Quoted from Malherbe, pp. 29–30.

32. See Mercure, Decembre 1757, pp. 179–186 and Mercure, Janvier 1758, pp. 152–155.

33. A. M. Nagler discusses Girault's talents as machinist and offers a good crosssection of the operatic production at this time in his article, “Maschinen und Maschinisten der Rameau-Ara,” Maske und Kothurn, III (1957), 128–140.

34. Quoted from Rameau, , Oeuvres complètes, VII, lxiv.Google Scholar

35. Mercure, Decembre 1761, p. 176. This judgment was echoed by L'Avant-Coureur.

36. L'Avant-Coureur, 18 June, 1764, P. 396.

37. Oeuvres complètes, IX, xxxix.

38. he decor de théâtre, plate 19, opp. p. 120.

39. I assume that most of Servandoni's decors, like Girault's temple, escaped the fire of April, 1763, being stored in the magazin of the Tuileries.

40. In a forthcoming article in Revue d'histoire du théâtre, I offer evidence that. Servandoni's famed Mosque of Scanderberg may have been used in the Fontainebleau productions of November, 1763, 28 years after its creation.

41. Grimm, VI, 494–495.

42. de Chevrier, M., Observations sur le théâtre etc. (Paris, 1755), p. 77.Google Scholar

43. Rousseau, Jean J., Julie ou la Nouvelle Heloise, I (Amsterdam, 1769), 422–425.Google Scholar

44. Favart, , Mémoires, I, 208–209.Google Scholar

45. Algarotti, Francesco, An Essay on the Opera (London, 1767), pp. 72–76.Google Scholar

46. For example see: LaPorte, Joseph, Observations sur la littérature moderne, I (La Haye, 1749), 207Google Scholar; Riccoboni, Lewis, A General History of the Stage Since its Origin (London, 1754), p. 152Google Scholar; Jonchère, La, Théâtre lyrique de M. La J., I (Paris, 1772), 152ff.Google Scholar; Noverre, Jean G., Letters on Dancing and Ballets (London, 1930), p. 76Google Scholar; a particularly humorous letter on Monsters appeared in the Mercure, Avril 1747, pp. 103–106; a letter on the observance of costumes appeared in the Mercure, Mai 1763, p. 185ff.

47. Monnet, , Mémoires, p. 190.Google Scholar

48. L'Année littéraire, IV (1756), 223–224.

49. Encyclopédie, XI, 495.

50. Remarks on the Character and Manners of the French, I (London, 1769), 37.

51. Gougenot, pp. 50–51.

52. Oeuvres complètes, X, xxiv.

53. Nougaret, Pierre J. B., De I'Art du théâtre en général (Paris, 1769), pp. 337–338.Google Scholar

54. Bouché, Jeanne, “Servandoni,” Gazette des beaux-arts, IV (Août, 1910), 121–146.Google Scholar