Louis-Jean Thévenet
Louis-Jean Thévenet, also known as Thévenet père ("father" or "the elder"; b. 1707–d. after 1778; active 1741– or 1745–77), was known as a painter of flowers, birds, and friezes. His mark is identified as a thin line with a dot on the end, which is visible in Slide 27_Mark.
Thévenet was associated with a particular ground color, known as bleu lapis (lapis-lazuli blue), as seen vividly on the “Teapot in the Queen’s Style” (théière à la Reine, ca. 1753, slide 13). Read more about bleu lapis here.
Before coming to work at Vincennes in the 1740s, Thévenet was a fan painter. Porcelain painting was a family affair for Thévenet: his wife, son, and sons-in-law worked as painters, and his wife also painted flowers.
A particularly striking example of Thévenet’s work is the “Square Openwork Tea Service” (déjeuner carré à jour, 1761, slide 27), whose tray is pierced with Vitruvian scrolls and bellflowers. Find more details on this tray on this page of the exhibit.
Eriksen notes that Thévenet, along with Jean-Baptiste Tandart 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, 3:1071–72; Eriksen and De Bellaigue 1987, 96, 154 no. 178, 172n178, 177; Tardy 1981, 567, 614.