Charles Lepec and the Patronage of Alfred Morrison

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Previous articleNext article FreeCharles Lepec and the Patronage of Alfred MorrisonOlivier Hurstel and Martin LevyOlivier HurstelIndependent Scholar, Paris Search for more articles by this author and Martin LevyAntiques Dealer and Scholar, London Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreSince the second half of the twentieth century, the appreciation of nineteenth-century European decorative arts has evolved by fits and starts. For British design, the revival was arguably initiated by the exhibition “Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Arts,” held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in 1952.1 Interest in French and other continental European manufacture began later and did not immediately take hold. In France, this interest increased with the decision in 1978 to create the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, specifically devoted to the art of the nineteenth century.2 Writing that same year in the introductory essay to the catalogue for the seminal exhibition originating in Philadelphia “The Second Empire, 1852–1870: Art in France under Napoleon III,” Jean-Marie Moulin acknowledged that this particular period “has been ignored—one might almost say erased—by French art historians…. Those who have had the experience of working on the Second Empire in the area of the arts have felt the scorn (sometimes tinged with indulgence) that has surrounded the period, even—and perhaps especially—among the specialist and the knowledgeable layman.”3The ambivalence toward French decorative arts from the middle decades of the nineteenth century can perhaps be understood against the backdrop of a sense of loss for the dignified and aristocratic grandeur encapsulated by the culture of the ancien régime. France was dominated by the bourgeoisie by the time of the Second Empire, and the frequently backwardlooking decoration of this period tended toward the showy: the taste of the nouveaux riches. But this viewpoint has come to be seen as representing an incomplete and unfair assessment of a fertile period, in which technical and artistic invention introduced a great degree of originality, with such work now appreciated for its distinctly nineteenth-century aesthetic merit.Charles Lepec (1830–1890), who was at his most active during the Second Empire period,4 exemplifies this sophisticated strand of French creativity. He was an artist who excelled in the medium of enamels, and, as will be shown, was particularly original and technically innovative. Many of his contemporaries working in the medium depended on compositions prevalent during the Renaissance. The 1978 Second Empire exhibition drew attention to many of the period’s leading manufacturers, some of whom are now represented in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which acquired them subsequently. These include the bronze founder and enamel manufacturer Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810–1892); the cabinetmaker Charles-Guillaume Diehl (1811–?1885); the ceramist Théodore Deck (1823–1891); and the silversmith and maker of enamels and electroplated wares Christofle et Cie (1830–present).5The leading Parisian manufacturers were major participants in the series of world’s fairs that dominated the second half of the nineteenth century, beginning with the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. These massive international expositions, attended by millions of visitors, served as shop windows, enabling French firms to attract the patronage of British royalty, the aristocracy, and the newly powerful plutocrats.6 Notable English purchasers from French manufacturers included Queen Victoria and Prince Albert;7 William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley (1817–1885);8 and, most significant of all, Lepec’s patron, the Victorian Maecenas, Alfred Morrison (1821–1897).With France particularly hard hit by the worldwide depression that dominated the 1870s, England became an increasingly important market not only for French manufacturers, several of whom—for example, Deck and Barbedienne—had London-based outlets, but also for some craftsmen who joined English firms, such as Marc-Louis Solon (1835–1913), who in 1870 left Sèvres for Minton.9 Like so many nineteenth-century French designers and manufacturers admired during their lifetimes, the peintre-émailleur10 Charles Lepec almost disappeared from view in the twentieth century.In 1971 Lepec’s sumptuous enamel and gold nef (table ornament in the form of a ship) (fig. 1), exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867, was sold by Lord Margadale (1906–1996),11 grandson of Alfred Morrison and in 1976 it entered the collection of the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe.12 It was not until 1980, when Daniel Alcouffe published his magisterial “Les Emailleurs français à l’Exposition Universelle de 1867,” that Lepec was finally reappraised.13 Alcouffe presented Lepec as the most original and outstanding enamel artist of the nineteenth century, the master of an art form at which the French had excelled since the Renaissance—but who had been somewhat forgotten since then.14fig. 1. Charles Lepec (French, 1830–1890). Nef (table ornament in the form of a ship), 1866–67. Enamel, gold, and silver-gilt, with small gemstones, max. width 12¾ × 14 in. (32.5 × 35.5 cm). Signed with numbers 309–312, and with the monogram CL. Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe (76/119)Alcouffe also gave details of the enamel work of Lepec’s contemporaries who exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle, 1867, although not in the same category15—a notable coterie that included Alexis Falize (1811–1893), Charles Duron (1814–1872), Charles Dotin (b. 1820), Claudius Popelin (1825–1892), and Alfred Meyer (1832–1904).16 While enamels by Popelin and Meyer, for example, generally depend directly on Renaissance prototypes for their style of painting, Lepec’s Renaissance-inspired creations show a greater degree of inspired originality and a finer mastery of technique. If the forms of some of Lepec’s vessels reveal their historic sources, the decoration, as seen in his work for Morrison, is utterly creative in its composition and coloration. Duron is best known for his interpretations and copies of mounted hardstone vessels from the French royal collection, housed in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.17Alcouffe’s review of Lepec’s career was based on contemporary criticism and on records of works published and exhibited during the artist’s lifetime, but Alcouffe identified and illustrated only three surviving objects, including the nef and Clémence Isaure (fig. 2). In 1982, the Musée d’Orsay acquired Clémence Isaure, formerly in the collection of Henry Bolckow (1806–1878), a German-born iron magnate, member of Parliament, and first mayor of Middlesbrough, who lived at Marton Hall.18 More recently, both Katherine Purcell, in connection with Alexis Falize, and Charlotte Gere and Judy Rudoe, with regard to jewelry, have touched briefly, but significantly, on Lepec.19fig. 2. Charles Lepec. Clémence Isaure, 1865. Enamel on copper, 71 × 43⅞ in. (180.3 × 111.3 cm). Signed 2[?]51 and CLP (interlaced) and inscribed: POESIM PICTURA CELEBRAT and CLEMENCE ISAURE. Musée d’Orsay, Paris (OAO 712)Since the early 1980s many more examples of Lepec’s work in enamel have been identified, as well as paintings, drawings, designs, and carvings. In 2004 the Metropolitan Museum acquired the Bouteille vénitienne (Venetian flask) (fig. 21), and in 2010 the Carved Panel, with a Portrait of Mabel Morrison (fig. 28); both were formerly in the collection of Alfred Morrison. In addition to a greatly increased body of work, it is now possible to add substantially to the biographical details given by Alcouffe. As a preface here, we outline hitherto unrecognized and significant aspects of Lepec’s life.20Central to Lepec’s career, as is made clear by Alcouffe and others, was Alfred Morrison, who was the son of the fabulously rich collector James Morrison (1789–1857), a man obsessed with money, status, class, and power, but also public-spirited and passionate about his family.21 James Morrison built his fortune on the simple motto “small profits and quick returns.” Although his elder son, Charles (1817–1909), emulated James in terms of business acumen, it was Alfred who matched and exceeded his father as a collector and patron. James had been a typical collector in the tradition of the nineteenth-century nouveaux riches, an autodidact who took the advice of his architect J. B. Papworth (1775–1847) and others in forming an outstanding collection of old master and contemporary English paintings. His decor included the typical rich man’s accumulation of Boulle furniture and Sèvres vases.Alfred preserved much of his father’s collection but stands out as a discerning patron of contemporary craftsmen (and, to a lesser extent, painters). The younger Morrison should be seen as a successor to great amateurs such as William Beckford (1760–1844) and Thomas Hope (1769–1831).22 Alfred Morrison patronized in depth those whose work he admired, many of whom are now considered among the outstanding manufacturers of the period. These include the innovative jeweler Alessandro Castellani (1823–1883); the reviver of enameled glass in the Islamic taste Philippe-Joseph Brocard (1831–1896); Lucien Falize (1839–1897), whose remarkable gold, silver, amethyst, diamond, and enamel clock made for Morrison is now in the Metropolitan Museum;23 and the maker of damascened ironwork Plácido Zuloaga (d. ca. 1910). Lepec’s work would have glowed in such company. Among other areas in which Morrison collected voraciously were engravings, textiles, and, famously, autographs.24 Chinese porcelain and enamels and Japanese works of art, including many cloisonné enamels, were also a passion of Morrison’s.25The taste for enamels began to revive toward the end of the reign of Louis Philippe (1773–1850).26 During the 1850s, collectors were principally interested in medieval and Renaissance enamels, but following the opening of Japan to the West in the mid-1850s and the sacking of the Summer Palace in Peking (now Beijing) in 1860, connoisseurs had a greater opportunity to study and acquire Asian enamels. Morrison’s collecting is distinguished, however, by his pursuit of contemporary European enamels, alongside older Asian creations.But Morrison’s interests extended beyond the works of art he commissioned and collected. The influential and innovative architect, designer, and design theorist Owen Jones (1809–1874) was engaged by Morrison to create the furniture and interiors at Carlton House Terrace, London, and at Fonthill, in Wiltshire; the work was carried out by the talented London cabinetmaker Jackson & Graham (active ca. 1840–85).27Charles LepecCharles Florent Joseph Lepec (fig. 3) was born in Paris on April 5, 1830, and died in Reux, France, on May 19, 1890.28 He was the son of Charles Antoine Lepec, who was born at Reux on April 19, 1791, and died in Paris on March 12, 1875. A descendant of the noble family of Costentin de Tourville,29 Lepec père was a lawyer, the author of several books on law,30 and a recipient of the Legion of Honor (as would be his son). His wife, Florence Jeanne Raimonde Demetria Rodriguez, was of Spanish origin.31 Despite the conventions of the time, the couple did not marry until May 1, 1832, two years after the birth of their only child. The family lived at 11, rue Gaillon, a former hôtel particulier by then divided into apartments. The building was fashionably located at the bottom of the chaussée d’Antin, between the Place Vendôme and the Palais-Royal. The spacious apartment also housed the office of Lepec père until his death in 1875.fig. 3. Studio of Nadar [Gaspard-Félix Tournachon] (French, 1820–1910). The Painter Lepec N° 848, n.d. Albumen print from glass negative, 3⅜ × 2¼ in. (8.5 × 5.8 cm). Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (FT-4-NA-235 [2])The Lepec family owned property, including land and orchards, in Reux, near Pont-l’Evêque, Normandy, which suggests that they enjoyed a degree of financial stability and social standing. Thus it could be argued that Charles Lepec grew up in a privileged environment. He attended the Lycée Condorcet, the great liberal school on the Right Bank, much favored by the Parisian bourgeoisie. His father was a long-standing member of the prestigious Cercle des Arts, a meeting place for painters, sculptors, musicians, writers, and art lovers.32Proximity to this group surely influenced Charles Lepec’s choice of career. However, despite its relatively prosperous position, his family clearly wanted the young Lepec to have the advantage of a formal education. Although he did not go on to pursue a career in law or one of the other professions for which he might have been eligible, the benefits of his academic learning would become evident in his erudite artistic output. As Auguste Luchet noted of Lepec’s early life: “Happy is he who is able to enter the Arts through the noble door of Letters and Sciences.”33Contemporary accounts, published about the time of the 1867 Exposition Universelle, suggest that Lepec’s principal artistic development occurred under the supervision of the artist Hippolyte Flandrin (1809–1864).34 After an early career as a painter, exhibiting at the Salons of 1857 and 1859,35 by 1860 Lepec had turned to the enamel work that would be his major preoccupation until the early 1870s.36 By 1861, he was living at 61, rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, Paris; in 1865 he was at 52, rue de Bourgogne; and by 1869 he had moved to 12, rue de Pré-aux-Clercs. When Lepec married his pupil Jeanne Marie Thierry in 1882, he lived at 13, rue Bonaparte. It is clear that Lepec also spent time from the 1860s onward at Reux, and seems eventually to have made it his main place of residence.37Lepec, Robert Phillips, and Alfred MorrisonLepec exhibited at the 1862 London International Exhibition,38 where he may have had his first encounter with Robert Phillips, the jeweler based at 23 Cockspur Street, London, who would shortly become the agent for his work in England.39 At this world’s fair, during a period when modern enamels appealed mainly to a small number of elite connoisseurs, Lepec made his first sales to Alfred Morrison, who would become his most significant patron (fig. 4).40 Phillips and Morrison were, in effect, to shape Lepec’s career. The considerable Morrison archive, part of the Fonthill Estate Archive, contains documents and letters with direct bearing on the relationships between Lepec and Phillips, Lepec and Morrison, and Lepec and his fellow Parisian craftsmen.41 This remarkably well-preserved source provides unique insights into the relationship between a patron and his agent, and those whose work was commissioned.fig. 4. J. Smith (English). Alfred Morrison, Photograph. Fonthill Estate ArchiveA simple six-page list on lined paper, certainly prepared by Phillips’s clerk,42 records purchases made by Morrison at the “International Exhibition 1862.” The list demonstrates the range and depth of Morrison’s approach to the work of contemporary manufacturers, even at this early stage of his collecting career. From Lepec, Morrison bought “9 Plaques of Enamel. Reduced from 12000 to 9,000. £360” and “Models of Coffrets & Enamels 2000 frs. £80.” Morrison acquired a number of paintings at the International Exhibition, generally noted by country of origin rather than by artist. He also bought from leading French manufacturers, including the cabinetmakers Fourdinois and Guillaume Grohé and the metalworkers Christofle and Barbedienne (who on this occasion first exhibited his cloisonné enamels).43 He bought an ebony and ivory étagère from Jackson & Graham (some years before the firm became responsible for supplying Morrison with large quantities of Owen Jones–designed furniture); work by the Italians Giovanni Battista Gatti,44 Angiolo Barbetti, and Pietro Giusti (all three famous for their Renaissance-revival furniture); and ceramics from Minton and Sèvres. In all, Morrison spent £7,762 14s 8d, reduced after various discounts—for example, of 5 percent from Fourdinois—to £7,557 15s 8d. In an account from Phillips to Morrison covering 1862–63, which includes items from Elkington, Royal Worcester Porcelain Company, Jackson & Graham, and Gatti, there are two to including one for Lepec Enamels The have not been able to the this or its certainly in 1862 is the small (fig. on the to a Alcouffe that this work might be the one exhibited in 1867 and at in by Lucien Falize as study of a or and When this was sold at the catalogue the and Alfred as that Lepec’s had a and that such works had an to This criticism in be seen as an when at in of Lepec’s of relatively modern Charles Lepec. Enamel with in and × in. × cm). on the rather than his as Morrison’s agent at the 1862 London International Exhibition, it is clear that Phillips was as an between manufacturers and and manufacturers that in Morrison’s in the early 1860s include Thomas of and the Phillips’s as an Morrison become Lepec’s most important patron. Lepec would later many of the creations from this period when he in the 1867 Paris Exposition Phillips first exhibited Lepec’s work in The of remarkable and by Charles Lepec. It is as a work in its particular style of art as can well be In the of the is a in representing the of the in a by in with a in one and in the other the he the In the of the which is are of some of the most in the records of historic or of have the most The of the is with and in a to the of the This is at this and also exhibited by has disappeared from since it was sold at in and be as this formerly in Morrison’s collection, was also exhibited at the 1867 Exposition Universelle and Charles Lepec. Enamel on with a gold on the as a × in. × cm). Signed and and Louis Art Museum, Charles Lepec. of the of in A from the catalogue of the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle with an of a or identified as surviving from Lepec to Phillips in the Fonthill Estate is the and relationship that had between the two since their at the London International Exhibition, the In Lepec a he had been working on since about after three of work, he had now the He by Phillips will be to Paris with his and for a so that he can from the country Lepec had made to the design and would at more to the The artist also to be to Phillips’s Lepec to Phillips that he had the on a and that a work of such would to them In will be to be one of many of artistic with contemporary Lepec that Charles Duron has made the for the Lepec will for London on and he might at the British located at Cockspur Street, door to Phillips now Despite the of a or and would suggest that is the to which Lepec and that Duron the and and by Phillips, were at the Paris in In a to Phillips May 11, Lepec the of the two that he has more for work, and he the to the same Lepec an that however, to direct attention two of the enamel paintings we have are by Lepec and to Phillips, the was in the des as a a The however, by that he the the year by Lepec’s work in enamel was attention on both of the English the of enamels by Lepec in with Phillips, the items are three or to in a March work in was a which Lepec to take to London in early this Although and the small at the Musée des de de might be of Lepec’s on the of the (fig. Clémence Isaure on a Charles Lepec. ca. and enamel on gold and × × 3⅜ in. × × cm). Musée des de de the works by as exhibited by Lepec at the Paris Salons of have been such is et which was by who has not been Although Morrison was Lepec’s patron, it did not that Morrison acquired he was The from the Fonthill Estate Archive, et (fig. is clearly for a major work and surely the by to the 1865 It is and Paris 14 Charles Lepec and is about the Lepec to with enamels in an enameled three in Charles Lepec. et on paper, × in. × cm). Signed and Paris 14 Charles Lepec. Fonthill Estate degree to which Lepec and Phillips’s is in a Lepec that Phillips has a He also that his has regard to the he that he is that the design is to Phillips’s taste and that he will not it before the of first The is not to so we that Morrison, through Phillips, the of Lepec’s is based on a of the by and from a where is about to be by a It may not be a that in the same to great the work as et its technical composition but its and decorative the and of the works from formerly in Morrison’s collection and at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle, as an a particular some of Lepec’s composition et might have The are the number (fig. is now in the collection of the Musée des de It the of with of to The of the and a on the The of the decoration on the second has not been identified (fig. have decorative by of a of which is of a in Lepec’s work and a of the nineteenth-century interest in medieval Lepec also a into the monogram he as his (fig. Charles Lepec. 1865. Enamel on silver, in. cm). Signed 1865. Musée des de de Charles Lepec. 1865. Enamel on silver, in. cm). Signed Charles Lepec. Lepec ca. and on Fonthill Estate to two it would that they two one with an design and the other with a bottom left and which Morrison also to the 1867 Paris Exposition In a 13, Lepec Robert Phillips to Morrison that despite their rich decoration, could not the same as the first The following Phillips Lepec’s to Victoria and Albert Museum an important and hitherto group of by The drawings, some of which are range from 1865 to they were acquired in from Phillips of Cockspur for Alfred Phillips, in a to the to the of which that there were In the of where the design can be with an to for Although Morrison would to have Lepec’s most significant patron the period we have seen that et major work not acquired by Morrison was the Clémence Isaure exhibited at the Paris The as noted was Henry who at some also bought a gold with an enamel of surrounded by this is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert year was to be a one for Lepec, and it seems that he felt the only was he work on an but as the he would be increasingly by the following Exposition In a 1, Lepec Phillips about he is with this on which he has for more than a year with the of his two Lepec is by the up the but that the has been that in the He that he will be it be in time for the can be that the work with which Lepec was is Clémence the 71 by with the by given by the Musée The in an increasingly Lepec had now a second time in the a he had had before with a the