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David Roentgen and Russia
Catherine II was fond of luxury, comfort and an attractive arrangement
of her palaces, dachas, orangeries, gardens and so on. She loved to describe
the luxurious elegance of mirrors and colonnades, paintings and statues,
the opulent cosiness of the rooms in the Hermitage. The court of the "Semiramis
of the North" served as a magnet for outstanding architects, artists,
decorators and furniture-makers across Europe. The man who became the
main supplier of furniture to the Russian court was the celebrated European
craftsman David Roentgen. "The prime furniture-maker and mechanic
of the age" are the words used by Catherine's long-standing Parisian
correspondent, the diplomat and writer Baron Grimm, who himself ordered
the furnishings for a whole room from Roentgen. Catherine in her reply
said, "We will be delighted to meet the furniture-maker and mechanic
as we are building more than ever." And so, in the spring of 1784,
Roentgen brought his first consignment of furniture to St Petersburg.
It included desks "at which one can write sitting or standing",
dressing tables and drawing tables, as well as chest of drawers, harpsichords,
a turning armchair and a long-case clock. The first consignment included
card tables. The Empress was fond of cards and most evenings, even balls
end with a game of l'hombre - an old card game (also called Ombre) that
came into vogue in Russia during her reign.
Roentgen's pieces were all immaculately made and decorated with precious
materials, but other European craftsmen were producing similar furniture.
Especially for the Empress, Roentgen brought the unique Apollo Bureau
and this ploy was very effective. Catherine was enchanted with the bureau
and took it into her collection. This rich piece of furniture with noble
forms was decorated with mahogany and gilded bronze. It delighted not
only the eye, but also the mind as the process of opening up the bureau
using elaborate mechanisms was like some astonishing conjuring trick.
As one traveller who visited St Petersburg in the 1790s wrote, "The
artist's genius unleashed all its inventiveness in this work."
David Roentgen (1743-1807) was one of the leading furniture-makers of
the 18th century. He coupled talented and subtle artistry with a good
head for business, fantastic energy and practical quick-wittedness. In
the early 1770s David took over his father's workshop in Neuwied on the
Rhine and created an enterprise of a kind never seen before and unparalleled
in Europe. The early products of the workshop, in the Rococo style, were
distinguished by exceptional marquetry - designs inlaid in different woods,
executed with particular precision and refinement. The master mechanic
and clock-maker Peter Kinzing made the cunning mechanisms for them. Roentgen's
furniture soon became known throughout Europe. In 1774 the craftsman began
working in Paris. He became supplier to the French court and a member
of the Parisian Corporation of ebenistes. Under the influence of French
art, Roentgen gradually moved away from to Rococo towards Classical forms.
The works that he delivered to St Petersburg are marked by noble proportions
and elegant forms, the use of architectural elements in the construction
and decoration and the combination of precious varieties of wood with
gilded bronze - all features of "Roentgen Classicism".
Roentgen's efforts paid off and his affairs began well in St Petersburg.
He received commissions from Catherine II and her circle. The orders of
furniture for the Russian court were immense. Between 1784 and 1790 several
consignments were dispatched to St Petersburg. Four of the five visits
that we know Roentgen made to Russia were connected with Catherine's commissions.
His magnificent furniture was superbly suited to the Empress's favourite
brainchild - the Large Hermitage, constructed in 1784. The large consignments
of furniture included unique collector's items such as a writing-desk
combined with a lectern, a desk with a chiming mechanism and another featuring
a medal of Plato. The Empress commissioned six cabinets from Roentgen
in which to keep her collections of medals and gems. During one of his
visits, Roentgen took part in the repair of the Hermitage furniture.
In the 1780s the craftsman was at the peak of his fame. The French Revolution
was a turning-point in his life: his Paris workshop was destroyed, his
warehouse confiscated and he himself declared an emigre. Roentgen managed
to escape to Germany, but he never rescaled the heights he had once occupied.
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Portrait of Catherine II
Richard Brompton
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Portrait of David Roentgen
Heinrich Foelix (?)
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Roentgen's workshop in Neuwied
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Cabinet for gems
1788-89
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Roll-front desk with a medal of Plato
1785
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