Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751–1843) a French sculptor, was the most prominent ''bronzier'', or producer of ornamental patinated and

gilt-bronze Ormolu (; from French ''or moulu'', "ground/pounded gold") is the gilding technique of applying finely ground, high-carat gold– mercury amalgam to an object of bronze, and for objects finished in this way. The mercury is driven off in a kiln l ...

objects and furniture mounts of the

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental E ...

. His fashionable neoclassical and

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

furnishing bronzes (''bronzes d'ameublement'') established the highest standard in refined finish in the craft that the French called that of the ''fondeur-ciseleur'', "founder-finisher". In his pre-Revolutionary training, Thomire appeared first as a ''ciseleur'', in the division of duties that went into the production, for example, of a set of gilt-bronze wall-lights delivered for Marie-Antoinette's card-room, her ''Salon des Jeux'' at

Compiègne Compiègne (; pcd, Compiène) is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. It is located on the river Oise. Its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois''. Administration Compiègne is the seat of two cantons: * Compiègne-1 (with 1 ...

: under the general supervision of Hauré, the wax and wooden model was carved by Martin, cast by Forestier, and chased by Thomire, as Pierre Verlet was able to show over fifty years ago. He had received his training in the workshop of

Pierre Gouthière Pierre Gouthière (1732–1813) was a French metal worker. He was born at Bar-sur-Aube and went to Paris at an early age as the pupil of Martin Cour. During his brilliant career he executed a vast quantity of metal work of the utmost variety, ...

, the outstanding Parisian ''ciseleur-doreur'' working in the Louis XVI style, before establishing his own shop in 1776. He gradually assumed the leading position of his former master. In 1784 a pair of Sèvres vases with Raphaelesque grotesques in violet on a white ground, made in 1782 were mounted with gilt-bronze goats as handles, which Pierre Verlet recognized in a memorandum delivered by Thomire, who was responsible for modelling in wax, casting, matte gilding and mounting on the porcelain. In 1783–84 he received his first notable commission, casting and finishing the gilt-bronze handles modelled by

Louis-Simon Boizot Louis-Simon Boizot (1743–1809) was a French sculptor whose models for biscuit figures for Sèvres porcelain are better-known than his large-scale sculptures. Biography Boizot was the son of Antoine Boizot, a designer at the Gobelins manuf ...

for a pair of

Sèvres porcelain Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known for ...

vases, today divided between the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

and

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the presen ...

. Under the Empire, Thomire purchased the fashionable premises of the '' marchand-mercier'' Martin-Éloi Lignereux, for whom he had provided furnishing bronzes in rue Taitbout, Paris. When he exhibited in the 1806 Exposition Publique des Produits de l'Industrie, the first time a ''bronzier'' was permitted among the exhibiters, he gained a gold medal. His most prestigious commission was the execution of the cradle for the King of Rome, which was designed by

Pierre Paul Prud'hon Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (, 4 April 1758 – 16 February 16, 1823) was a French Romantic painter and draughtsman best known for his allegorical paintings and portraits such as '' Madame Georges Anthony and Her Two Sons'' (1796). He painted a portra ...

and in which Thomire collaborated with the Imperial silversmith Odiot; in a second cradle, Thomire alone was responsible. At the height of his business, Niclausse estimated Thomire employed six or seven hundred workers. A great number of the bronzes by Thomire in the Imperial residences had been commissioned, but further bronzes were supplied as collateral for a loan that was extended to Thomire in 1807 and which he was unable to repay, which consequently passed into the Imperial collection in 1811. Under the Restauration, Thomire Duterme et Cie. retained the highest clientele, among them Monsieur, the King's brother, the

duc de Berry Duke of Berry (french: Duc de Berry) or Duchess of Berry (french: Duchesse de Berry) was a title in the Peerage of France. The Duchy of Berry, centred on Bourges, was originally created as an appanage for junior members of the French royal fami ...

, and as furnishers to the Garde Meuble de la Couronne, though elaborate measures were taken to rededicate Napoleonic allegories in bronze and ormolu with suitably Bourbon ones. In one, Thomire cast and finished a martial allegory sculpted by

, who had provided draped caryatid models for furniture mounts that were touched up by Thomire, applied to the upper corners of a secretary desk by

Guillaume Beneman Guillaume Beneman or Benneman (1750 – after 1811) was a prominent Parisian ''ébéniste'', one of several of German extraction, working in the early neoclassical Louis XVI style, which was already fully developed when he arrived in Paris. Benema ...

, delivered for the King's ''cabinet intérieure'' at Compiègne, 1787. In a notable commission for Count Nicolay Demidoff in 1819, Thomire produced finely-made figures of Fame with doubled trumpets to serve as handles for the massive

malachite Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fractures ...

-veneered vase now at the Metropolitan Museum. Preston Remington, "The Story of a Malachite Vase"''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'' New Series, 3.6 (February 1945), pp. 142–145. Thomire retired from his firm in 1823.

Notes

External links

Grand Ormolu / Surtout de table by Pierre-Philippe Thomire
at the Wilanów Palace Museum *
Mobilier national : Thomire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomire, Pierre-Philippe Artists from Paris 18th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 19th-century French sculptors French decorative artists French goldsmiths 1751 births 1843 deaths Burials at Montmartre Cemetery 19th-century French male artists 18th-century French male artists

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links