Luxury and Power examines the material world of English ambassadors at the end of the seventeenth century, and illustrates the way in which architecture and the arts played an important role in diplomatic life. It positions luxury consumption firmly in the political domain and demonstrates the significance of diplomats as cultural intermediaries, highlighting the importance of the material world to politicians and the role that diplomats played in the evolution of artistic appreciation in England. Split into two parts, the first half covers the life of diplomats abroad: where they lived, what they took with them, and the style in which they lived when away from home. It investigates the ambassadorial household and the role of wives in embassy life, and positions women at the centre of the diplomatic world. Within the wider context of artistic patronage, not just fine art, Helen Jacobsen assesses their impact as conduits for the arts, examining their own collecting and the acquisitions they made for their friends and patrons back home. Through case studies, part two examines how cultural politics drove the luxury consumption in which so many diplomats indulged. Such expenditure was not random, but was informed by diplomatic activity and was affected by the evolution in European diplomacy during these years. Importantly, it reveals that far from being the magpies satirised by eighteenth-century commentators, many of these patrons displayed a knowledge and understanding of many areas of artistic endeavour that made them indubitable connoisseurs of architecture, painting, furniture, textiles, silver, and coaches. Helen Jacobsen re-evaluates the reputation for artistic patronage of the later Stuart years and finds that the contribution by English diplomats has been sorely neglected.

Luxury and Power: The Material World of the Stuart Diplomat, 1660-1714 (Oxford Historical Monographs)

History

Jacobsen, Helen

Europe

Oxford University Press

The Wallace Collection has an internationally-renowned collection of French eighteenth-century art but perhaps lesser known today is their stunning collection of gilt-bronze objects. These bronzes d'ameublement – from clocks and mounted Sèvres porcelain to wall lights and candelabra – epitomised the levels of luxury achieved in Parisian interiors. Highly expensive and expertly wrought, they illustrate the heights of skilled craftsmanship achieved by French bronze workers in the eighteenth century as well as showcasing the wealth and connoisseurship o f their owners. Lavishly illustrated with new photography, this publication will be a book of 'highlights' to include the very best of what the Wallace Collection has to offer in this field.

Gilded Interiors: Parisian Luxury and the Antique

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Philip Wilson Publishers

The first major book on Riesener, one of the greatest French cabinet-makers of all time. Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) was one of the greatest French cabinet-makers of all time, supplying the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette and furnishing royal and aristocratic houses. His pieces are of exquisite design and superb workmanship, using the most costly materials throughout and becoming a byword for all that is admired in French furniture worldwide. This first major monograph on Riesener traces his career in pre-revolutionary France, highlighting his work as the most celebrated cabinet maker of the Louis XVI period and focusing on the enduring appeal of his furniture through the nineteenth century and beyond. Based on the extensive collections of the Wallace Collection, Waddesdon Manor and the Royal Collection it is fully illustrated with new photography and includes much new research making it essential not only to art historians and collectors, but also to decorative arts enthusiasts and lovers of fine furniture.

Jean-Henri Riesener: Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

Bird, Rufus

Jackson, Mia

Individual Artists

Accompanying an exhibition at the Wallace Collection, Inspiring Walt Disney explores the influences of the art and architecture of France on Walt Disney and his studio artists, highlighting in particular the Disney classics of hand-drawn animation, Cinderella (1950) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). Pairing preparatory material from these films - including concept art for talking furniture and fairy-tale castles - with masterpieces from the eighteenth century reveals hidden sources of inspiration and allows us to appreciate the extraordinary talents behind Disney animated films and French decorative arts. Just as the dynamic, twisting movements of the Rococo sought to breathe life into what was essentially inanimate - silver, porcelain, furniture - so too did Disney animators seek to create the illusion of movement, action and emotion. Illustrated with innovative works by artists such as Mary Blair, Hans Bacher and Peter J. Hall, and the animated and anthropomorphic furniture, Sèvres porcelain and gilt bronze of rococo designers, the catalogue explores the shared creative roots of these two seemingly disparate artistic realms and looks to revitalise the feelings of excitement, awe and marvel, which both eighteenth-century craftsmen and Disney animators sought to spark in their audiences.

Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts at the Wallace Collection

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Books by Jacobsen, Helen