Jean-Baptiste Tandart

Fritzsche_Slide_56_Mark.jpg

Jean-Baptiste Tandart aîné (painter) and Michel-Barnabé Chauvaux aîné (gilder), Marks for Plate, 1782, slide 56_Mark

Jean-Baptiste Tandart aîné (the elder; 1729–1816, active 1754–1800 or –1803) was originally a fan painter before he began working at Vincennes in 1754. He specialized in flowers, especially bouquets, wreaths, garlands, border patterns, and garden landscapes. He also painted arabesques and birds. Reportedly, he had “a sweet physiognomy” (Savill 1988, 3:1070).

Tandart’s mark (three dots) is visible in Slide 37_Mark and Slide 56_Mark (in the latter, his mark is above the cross-hatched lines, which is the gilder’s mark for Michel-Barnabé Chauvaux).

Fritzsche_Slide_56.jpg

Plate (assiette) from the Catherine the Great Service, 1782, slide 56

Tandart’s work can be seen on a plate (assiette) from the Catherine the Great Service (1782, slide 56). This is part of a celebrated dinner- and dessert-service commissioned in 1776 by Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. At the center of the plate is Catherine’s monogram (E II). Find more details on the Catherine the Great Service on this page of the exhibit.

Fritzsche_Slide_37_Mark.jpg

Jean-Baptiste Tandart, Mark for Bouillard Cup and Saucer (gobelet Bouillard et soucoupe), n.d., slide 37_Mark

Eriksen notes that Tandart, along with Louis-Jean Thévenet and others, was a member of the select group of “skilled flower-painters” of the era who were “chosen to decorate the great service delivered to Louis XV” in the 1750s (Eriksen and De Bellaigue 1987, 96).

References: Savill 1988, 3:1070; Eriksen and De Bellaigue 1987, 96; Tardy 1981, 566; Sassoon 1991, 200.