Pierre Gouthière and Marie Antoinette

Pair of Firedogs, 1777
Pierre Gouthière (1732–1813)
Gilt bronze and blued steel
Musée du Louvre, Paris; transfer from the Mobilier National, 1901

In 1777, Gouthière was asked to create several items for Marie Antoinette’s small Cabinet Turc at the Château de Fontainebleau. This prestigious commission included these firedogs, a chimneypiece, a chandelier, a pair of wall lights, and a shovel and tongs, the handles of which featured “African heads.” Only the firedogs and chimneypiece (still in situ at the Château de Fontainebleau) have survived.

Pair of Ewers, ca. 1785
Gilt bronze attributed to Pierre Gouthière (1732–1813)
Chinese porcelain from the Kangxi period (1662–1722)
Hard-paste porcelain and gilt bronze
Private collection

In the 1780s, Gouthière made the gilt bronzes for the chimneypiece of the Salon des Nobles in Marie Antoinette’s apartment at the Château de Versailles and for that of her foyer at the Paris Opéra. During the same years, he probably made the gilt-bronze mounts for this pair of ewers, known to have belonged to Marie Antoinette. No document has been found to confirm their attribution, but the expressiveness in the female and goat heads combined with the naturalistic finish on the various grapevines and leaves are characteristic of Gouthière’s work.