Console Table

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Console Table

Artist Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824-1887)

Place of OriginFrance

Dateabout 1863-1864

DimensionsH: 42 7/8 in.; W (top): 63 in.; Depth (top): 22 3/4 in.

MediumBronze and ormolu, Breccalito marble, onyx

ClassificationFurniture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1960.32

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 32

Label TextDesigned as one of a matching set of four, this luxurious console table adorned the Grand Salon of the Marquise de Païva’s palatial townhouse on the Champs Élysée in Paris. The marquise, known simply as La Païva, was one of the famous—and infamous—courtesans of France’s Second Empire (1852–70). She was known for the extravagance of her lifestyle, embodied in the furnishings and design of her Paris home. In the 1870s she hosted inspiring salons, lively gatherings of artists, writers, and politicians, including Antonin Proust, whose portrait by Edouard Manet hangs in Gallery 33. Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse was a leader in the revival of 18th-century elegance in design (see also his sculpture Hebe and the Eagle of Jupiter). The sculptures of young men holding up the tabletop, however, are based on the elongated, twisting figures of 16th-century Mannerism (see, for example, Primaticcio’s Ulysses and Penelope, Gallery 22).Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. 1978.

Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Michigan, 1979.