André-Vincent Vielliard
André-Vincent Vielliard (sometimes spelled Vieillard; 1717–90; active 1752–90), also known as Vielliard père or aîné ("father" or "the elder"), worked as both a painter and a gilder. He was one of the most prolific and well-known painters at Vincennes and Sèvres, more highly paid than many of his peers. His mark is identified as a line accompanied by dots, as seen in Slide 9_Mark.
His work can be seen on the “Breakfast Tray in the King’s Style with Bouillard Cups” (plateau du déjeuner du roi, gobelets Bouillard, 1753, slides 9a–b) and the “Pitcher” (broc ordinaire, n.d., slide 30).
“He could paint something of everything—landscapes, trophies, and figures…. But he had a personal, slightly primitive style which is very charming, and a palette which is quite distinctive; his figures can nearly always be recognized because, for example, their cheeks are slightly too much of a tomato-red” (Eriksen and De Bellaigue 1987, 97–98).
Before coming to Vincennes in 1752, Vielliard worked as a fan painter. His wide variety of works included gardening landscapes, farming tools, cherubs on clouds, friezes, baskets of flowers, allegories, border patterns, and pot-pourri vases. He also came to be associated with a particular kind of frieze known as the frise Vielliard, which was popular from 1778–85.
Vielliard was admired for “his very attractive and gently painted landscape backgrounds, and not least the fact that he had a quicker hand and was more industrious than anyone else” (Eriksen and De Bellaigue 1987, 97).
Although Eriksen argues that Vielliard was not that skilled in painting children, Savill alternatively points out that, “during the 1750s and 1760s he was the principal painter of children in landscapes,” often imitations of François Boucher (Eriksen and De Bellaigue 1987, 97; Savill 1988, 3:1074).
His approach to children is well exemplified by Slide 9a. This type of breakfast tray, termed a plateau du déjeuner du roi (breakfast tray in the King’s style), was being produced by 1753. It usually served as a tray for tea services or jam pots. The painting style on the objects in Slide 9a is known as “monochrome blue” (camaïeu bleu), here combined with “children in polychrome flesh colors” (enfants camayeux chaires colorées) (Savill 1988, 2:592).
References: Eriksen and De Bellaigue 1987, 97, 134–35, 154 no. 173, 171n173; Savill 1988, 2:590–92, 3:1074; Tardy 1981, 569; Dawson 1994, 137, 164; Roth and Le Corbeiller 2000, 167.