THÉOPHILE SOYER (1853-1940), 1891

Lot 76
11.12.2025 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Lieu de l'événementRoyaume-Uni, London
Commissionsee on Website%
ID 1514331
Lot 76 | THÉOPHILE SOYER (1853-1940), 1891
Valeur estimée
€ 3 000 – 5 000
THÉOPHILE SOYER (1853-1940), 1891
Allégorie de l'émaillerie
plaque rectangulaire en émail peint polychrome et paillons, rehauts d'or, signée et datée 'Th. Soyer, 1891', dans un cadre postérieur en bois doré
29,4 x 17,6 cm. (11 ½ x 6 7/8 in.) ; 39,7 x 28,3 cm. (15 5/8 x 11 1/8 in.), avec le cadre




Literature

Bibliographie comparative :
F. Fravalo pour la galerie Marc Maison, Les Soyer. Une dynastie d'émailleurs, catalogue d'exposition, Paris, 2005.
C. Cardinale, « Soyer. Une maison d’émaillerie parisienne » in. L’objet d’art, avril 2021, pp. 56-67.



Further details

A RECTANGULAR ENAMELLED PLAQUE DEPICTING 'THE ALLEGORY OF ENAMELLING', THÉOPHILE SOYER (1853–1940), 1891



Born into a Parisian dynasty of enamellists, chisellers, and engravers, Théophile Soyer (1853–1940) inherited the family workshop and its savoir-faire. Aware of his own artistic limitations, his father directed him to the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Adolphe Yvon, Georges Bertrand, and Jules Gabriel Levasseur. After early appearances at the Salon of 1870, Soyer quickly established himself as one of the leading figures in the revival of painted enamel in Paris, exhibiting regularly at Salons and Universal Exhibitions. His work is faithful to a historicist aesthetic, combining copies of old or contemporary masters with a sensitivity to Art Nouveau, evident in his explorations of form, colour, and the interplay of transparency enabled by enamelling. Actively involved in artistic and social life, he served as president of the Société des Éclectiques for several years and vice-president of the Chambre syndicale de la céramique et de la verrerie.

This plaque, depicting an allegory of enamelling, likely belongs to a series Théophile Soyer devoted to the decorative arts. This hypothesis is supported by a comparable enamelled plaque representing the allegory of goldsmithing, after a model by François Émile Ehrmann, now in the musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève. The exhibition catalogue Les Soyer: une dynastie d’émailleurs (Galerie Marc Maison, 2005, cat. 8) also records and illustrates a plaque on the same allegorical theme. Here, enamelling is personified as a young woman holding, in one hand, a Renaissance-style enamelled portrait medallion and, in the other, a covered vase, while a flaming kiln rises behind her.

Rooted in a Neo-Renaissance aesthetic, the composition elevates enamelling to the status of a grand classical allegory, asserting its legitimacy within the decorative arts and celebrating both its artistic and technical value.
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