Overdoor Painting and Double-Leaf Doors
Pierre Rousseau·1790s
Historical Context
The Overdoor Painting and Double-Leaf Doors from the Hôtel de Salm programme represent the combination of two separate functional elements — the painted decorative doors and the painting above them — that together formed an integrated architectural moment within the Salm interior. The pairing of functional painted doors with a painted overdoor above was common in ambitious French interior decoration, and the visual coherence between the two elements required careful planning by the decorative programme's designer. Pierre Rousseau's contribution to the Salm decorative ensemble placed him in a tradition of French decorative painting that valued the subordination of individual artistic ambition to the requirements of a larger architectural scheme — a different mode from easel painting, demanding different skills and sensibilities.
Technical Analysis
The combination of functional door panels and overdoor painting within a single preserved ensemble allows the viewer to assess how Rousseau calibrated the tonal and thematic relationships between elements at different heights and in different lighting conditions within the original architectural context.
Provenance
Said by Wildenstein & Co. (letter of January 19,1942) to have come from 193 Boulevard St. Germain, Paris (known at the time as 21 and 23 rue St. Dominique), a private house, supposedly built after plans by Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1698—1782). Comte Hippolyte Terray, owner of the house from about 1830; Marquise de Belleuf (daughter of Comte Terray); Comte de Waresquiel; Arthur Veil-Picard; [Wildenstein & Co., Paris]; Grace Rainey Rogers, purchased in 1913. Gift of Grace Rainey Rogers in memory of her father, William J. Rainey, 1942 and 1944.
