French Neoclassical designer Jean-Louis Prieur (b. 1725, d. after 1785) was an artist whose popularity with eighteenth-century European monarchs rivaled that of Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789), his Swiss contemporary. Among Prieur's many commissions was a set of designs for decorative household objects for Poland's King Stanislaw II Augustus Poniatowski (r. 1764-1795). Maria Leszczyńska (1703-1768), the daughter of an earlier Polish monarch, King Stanislaw I Leszczyńska (r. 1704-1709, 1733-1736), married France's King Louis XV (r. 1715-1774) in 1725. Her familiarity with the artist's accomplishments in Warsaw ensured work for Prieur at the court of France's Rococo ruler.
The Drawing for a Wall Light (ca. 1775), almost certainly by Prieur, illustrates a fixture with three branches that held candles, its back plate in the shape of a fiery torch. The Getty Museum owns six gilt bronze Wall Lights (ca. 1775) believed to have been made by Prieur from his design on view.
"Made for Manufacture: Drawings for Sculpture and the Decorative Arts" is on view from February 6 through May 20, 2007 at the J. Paul Getty Museum (Telephone: 310-440-7330; Website). The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Friday and Saturday 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Admission is free. Parking costs $8.00.
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From your Guide: Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, is a specialist in ancient, late-medieval and Renaissance art and history, and a regular contributor to About Art History. You may read all of his Special Exhibition and Catalogue Reviews here.