This remark may, at first sight, appear trivial; but a second view of
the subject will produce reflections on the frivolity of this people,
even amidst their intestine commotions, and at the same time shew
that they are, in no small degree, indebted to the influence of those
events for the taste which is to be distinguished in the new
productions of their industry, and, in general, for the progress they
have made, not only in the mechanical arts, but also in the sciences
of every description. This will appear the more extraordinary, as it
should seem natural to presume that the persecution which the
protectors of the arts and sciences experienced, in the course of the
revolution, was likely to produce quite a contrary effect. But the
man of science and the artist, each abandoned to himself, acquired,
in that forlorn situation, a knowledge and a taste which very
frequently are the result of long study only, seconded by
encouragement from the wealthy.
The apartments of the fine ladies, of the rich, of the bankers, and
merchants in Paris, and generally speaking, of all those who, from
their business and connexions, have most intercourse with the public
and with foreigners, are furnished in the modern mode, that is, in
the antique taste. Many of the French artists, being destitute of
employment, were compelled through necessity to seek it; some entered
into the warehouse of the upholsterer to direct the shape and
disposition of his hangings; some, into the manufactory of the
paper-maker to furnish him with new patterns; and others, into the
shop of the cabinet-maker to sell him sketches of antique forms. Had
the easels of these artists been occupied by pictures no sooner
finished than paid for, the Grecian bed would not have expelled the
_lit à la Polonaise_, in vogue here before the revolution; the
Etruscan designs would not have succeeded to the Chinese paper; nor
would the curtains with Persian borders have been replaced by that
elegant drapery which retraces the pure and simple taste of the
people of Attica.
The elegant forms of the modern French _secrétaires_, commodes,
chairs, &c. have also been copied from the Greeks and Romans. The
ornaments of these are either bronzed or gilt, and are uncommonly
well finished. In general, they represent heads of men, women, and
animals, designed after the antique. Caryatides are sometimes
introduced, as well as Egyptian attributes; the arms of the chairs
being frequently decorated with sphinxes. In short, on entering the
residence of a _parvenu_, you would fancy yourself suddenly
transported into the house of a wealthy Athenian; and these new
favourites of Fortune can, without crossing the threshold of their
own door, study chaste antiquity, and imbibe a taste for other
knowledge, connected with it, in which they are but little versed.
Mahogany is the wood employed for making these modern articles of
furniture, whose forms are no less varied than elegant; advantages
which cause them to be preferred to the ancient. But the latter,
though heavy in their construction, are, nevertheless, thought, by
some persons, superior to the former in point of solidity and
convenience. The old-fashioned bedsteads and chairs are generally of
oak, painted or gilt, and are covered with silk or tapestry of
different patterns. The _ci-devant_ nobles appear to be greatly
attached to them, and preserve them as monuments, which supply the
place of the titles and parchments they were forced to burn during
the sanguinary periods of the revolution. But this taste is not
exclusive; several of the Parisian _bourgeois_, either from economy,
or from a wish to appear to have belonged to that class, shew no less
eagerness to possess these spoils of the _noblesse_, as furniture for
their apartments.
While I am speaking of furniture, it naturally occurs to me that I
have not yet taken you to visit