Rococo & co: From Nicolas Pineau to Cindy Sherman

This exhibition celebrates the restoration of a unique collection of nearly 500 drawings from the workshop of the sculptor Nicolas Pineau (1684-1754), one of the main proponents of the Rocaille style, which Europe adopted as Rococo. A practitioner of measured asymmetry and a subtle interplay of solids and voids, Nicolas Pineau excelled in many fields: woodwork, ornamental sculpture, architecture, prints, furniture and silverware. The presentation of this major Rococo figure is extended to include a workshop that plunges the visitor into the heart of the creation of Rococo panelling. Asymmetries, sinuous lines, chinoiserie dreams and animal images illustrate the infinite variations of the Rococo style. Finally, from the 19^th to the 21^st century, this aesthetic has found numerous echoes, from neo-styles to the most unexpected and playful reinterpretations.

A figure of the Rococo: Nicolas Pineau, between Paris and Saint Petersburg

First known for his engravings, Nicolas Pineau was called to Russia in 1716, where he became first sculptor and then first architect to Peter the Great. He designed numerous projects for the Tsar, including decorations, gardens, monuments and buildings, and took an active part in the great building projects that transformed Saint Petersburg into the capital of a new empire and Peterhof into a new Versailles. On his return to Paris in 1728, Pineau wanted to continue his career as an architect, but it was as a sculptor that he excelled and stood out among his contemporaries. He worked primarily for the Parisian nobility and for Louis XV, while continuing to send his models to Germany and Russia and to publish. His work, consisting mainly of façade sculptures and woodcarvings, was largely destroyed with the advent of neoclassicism. However, remnants can still be seen in the streets of old Paris, testifying to the elegance of his art.

Making decorations: Inside the workshop of a wood sculptor

The drawings presented in the exhibition come from the collection of Nicolas Pineau’s workshop, which was kept by his descendants until the end of the 19^th century. A large part of this collection was then acquired by the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs (the predecessor of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs). These drawings, of a very wide typological range, provide an exceptional insight into the design and production of decorative arts under the Ancien Régime. Their juxtaposition with the works of Nicolas Pineau reveals the complexity of the creative processes themselves.

One room of the exhibition is dedicated to these workshop practices. Using a model by Nicolas Pineau, the sculptor François Gilles re-creates the stages of woodworking and presents three phases of this sculptural work. Videos and tools explain the technical means used in the 18^th century.

Shapes of the Rococo

Asymmetry, sinuous lines, infinite variations, chinoiserie dreams, animal imagery: Nicolas Pineau, like his contemporaries and successors, created an art full of fantasy, surprise and abundance, inspired by nature and classical architecture, which he transfigured. While Pineau developed a unique formal vocabulary, the revolution of this taste for curves, excess, hybridization and whimsy spread, according to some, to all the arts and throughout Europe.

Echoes of the Rococo

The Rococo period marked a turning point in the history of decorative arts, the echoes of which can still be heard today. The contradictory perception of this style, between passion and rejection, leads to an exploration of the historicism of the 19^th century, the sources of Art Nouveau and those of Postmodernism. The forms of the Rococo conceal, develop, hybridise and are constantly reinvented. This freedom of form and inventiveness appears as a challenge to taste and logic. The whiplash line of a Majorelle resonates with the asymmetrical curves of creations by Mathieu Lehanneur or Pierre Renart. Vivienne Westwood, like Cindy Sherman, plays with rococo preciousness, as does Tan Giudicelli, who decorates a dress like a rococo chest of drawers. For Royère, nature reclaims its rights: the decorator transforms light fittings into vines. The juxtaposition of Neo- or Post-Rococo objects with the work of one of the main proponents of this aesthetic, Nicolas Pineau, raises the question of the permanence and success of a “taste” that seems to have no end.