Creole Vanity by Andrew LaMar Hopkins
My latest painting titled" Creole Vanity" a play on words. Showing a fashionable 1820's New Orleans Creole bedroom. With a French Creole woman at her dressing table caressing her image reflected in mahogany and ormolu Empire dressing table vanity mirror. The bedroom has a early 19th century Louisiana beehive leg armoire with brass ball feet. Wallpaper border hatboxes sit atop the armoire. Next to the armoire and under the window are a pair of Charles X bergères.
On the side of the armoire are two gilt framed hand colored engravings of roses by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. He was nicknamed "The Raphael of flowers". He was an official court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette, and he continued painting through the French Revolution and Reign of Terror. Redouté survived the turbulent political upheaval to gain international recognition for his precise renderings of plants, which remain as fresh in the early 21st century as when first painted. On the window sill is a Classical English Regency bronze urn.
A American bedstead in the French taste by French-born maître ébéniste Charles-Honoré Lannuier working in New York city. The bedstead has a carved and gilded "Pelican in her piety" on the top of the tester, A symbol of the Catholic church and used in Louisiana on the state flag and seal. Above the seated lady are oil portraits of her husband and son in gilt Empire frames. Her poodle sits on the bed. The NeoClassical Empire carpet is a Savonnerie. The Savonnerie manufactory was the most prestigious European manufactory of knotted-pile carpets, enjoying its greatest period c. 1650–1685; the cachet of its name is casually applied to many knotted-pile carpets made at other centers.
The revival of the Savonnerie in the early 19th century after the Revolution is due to the patronage of Napoleon, who commissioned carpets after 1805 in the Empire style like the Savonnerie depicted in the painting. New cartoons were designed by Percier and Fontaine. The baseboards of the room are marbleized to look like black Egyptian gold vain marble. On the Savonnerie carpet is a 18th century gilded and velvet dog kennel in the Louis XVI style.
A American bedstead in the French taste by French-born maître ébéniste Charles-Honoré Lannuier working in New York city. The bedstead has a carved and gilded "Pelican in her piety" on the top of the tester, A symbol of the Catholic church and used in Louisiana on the state flag and seal.
A American bedstead in the French taste by French-born maître ébéniste Charles-Honoré Lannuier working in New York city.
18th and 19th century New Orleans was a hot a humid place before AC with lot's of rain and swamps from Spring until Fall. Most windows were open to allow air circulation in rooms. Because of this mosquitoes invaded the space. So one could get a good nights rest from blood sucking pests fashionably alternatives were used in the South. Mosquito curtains. Panels of mosquito netting mounted on the tester that could be pulled out to surround the bed at night to block intrusive pests or opened during the day for the elegant look of curtains.
A American bedstead in the French taste by French-born maître ébéniste Charles-Honoré Lannuier working in New York city. The bedstead has a carved and gilded "Pelican in her piety" on the top of the tester, A symbol of the Catholic church and used in Louisiana on the state flag and seal.
My latest painting titled" Creole Vanity" a play on words. Showing a fashionable 1820's New Orleans Creole bedroom. With a French Creole woman at her dressing table caressing her image reflected in mahogany and ormolu Empire dressing table vanity mirror.
A 1820's French Engraving where I got the ideal for the lady
Next to the armoire and under the window are a pair of Charles X bergères.
Charles X bergère
A lap dog sits on the Classical bed
18th and 19th century New Orleans was a hot a humid place before AC with lot's of rain and swamps from Spring until Fall. Most windows were open to allow air circulation in rooms. Because of this mosquitoes invaded the space. So one could get a good nights rest from blood sucking pests fashionably alternatives were used in the South. Mosquito curtains. Panels of mosquito netting mounted on the tester that could be pulled out to surround the bed at night to block intrusive pests or opened during the day for the elegant look of curtains.
Above the seated lady are oil portraits of her husband and son in gilt Empire frames.
The bedroom has a early 19th century Louisiana beehive leg armoire with brass ball feet. Wallpaper border hatboxes sit atop the armoire.
Louisiana beehive leg armoire
Early 19th century Wallpaper border hatbox
Early 19th century Wallpaper border hatbox
Early 19th century hand colored rose engraving by Pierre-Joseph Redouté
He was nicknamed "The Raphael of flowers".
He was an official court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette, and he continued painting through the French Revolution and Reign of Terror. Redouté survived the turbulent political upheaval to gain international recognition for his precise renderings of plants, which remain as fresh in the early 21st century as when first painted.
Paris was the cultural and scientific centre of Europe during an outstanding period in botanical illustration (1798 – 1837), one noted for the publication of several folio books with coloured plates. Enthusiastically, Redouté became an heir to the tradition of the Flemish and Dutch flower painters Brueghel, Ruysch, van Huysum and de Heem. Redouté contributed over 2,100 published plates depicting over 1,800 different species, many never rendered before.
The detail of the carpet shown in the photograph has a Classical swan motif . Josephine was very fond of swans and had black swans imported from Australia to swim in her lake at Malmaison.
Black swan in New Orleans City park
Classical English Regency bronze urn
On the Savonnerie carpet is a 18th century gilded and velvet dog kennel in the Louis XVI style.
NeoClassical Empire Savonnerie carpet
18th century gilded and velvet dog kennel that belonged to French Queen Marie Antoinette
The bedstead has a carved and gilded "Pelican in her piety" on the top of the tester, A symbol of the Catholic church and used in Louisiana on the state flag and seal.
Detail of a tabernacle doors at Montpellier's cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Montpellier) showing the "Pelican in her piety"
The heraldic device of a mother Pelican, plucking at her own breast in order to draw blood for the nurture of her young, is one that spans at least 7 centuries. Many family crests, churches and cathedrals across the Christian world display such an image.
Some medieval bestiaries describe the young as pecking at the paternal bird who, in angry response, strikes back at them, inflicting mortal wounds. The adult bird is so grieved by its actions that it pierces its own breast (known as vulning - hence the word vulnerable) and on the third day he draws blood which, when spilt onto the young, revives them.
The Pelican-in-her-Piety is an allegorical depiction of Jesus Christ, in both His sacrificial love and resurrection. In an age when literacy was limited, the image of the Pelican-in-her-Piety would have been recognisable and understood by everyone who saw it and was, in particular, interpreted as being symbolic of the Eucharist.
18th and 19th century New Orleans was a hot a humid place before AC with lot's of rain and swamps from Spring until Fall. Most windows were open to allow air circulation in rooms. Because of this mosquitoes invaded the space. So one could get a good nights rest from blood sucking pests fashionably alternatives were used in the South. Mosquito curtains. Panels of mosquito netting mounted on the tester that could be pulled out to surround the bed at night to block intrusive pests or opened during the day for the elegant look of curtains.
French Empire Classical portrait of a boy
Creole Vanity by Andrew LaMar Hopkins
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