Georges de Feure
Settee, ca. 1900
Gilded birch
h. 98 cm - w. 116 cm - d. 53 cm
PROVENANCE : Collection of Lady Jane Abdy (1934-2015), née Jane Noble, 8 Pelham Place, London - This settee presumably also belonged to her husband, Sir Robert Abdy, 5th baronet Abdy of Albyns, who died in 1976.
SIMILAR PIECES : The only other known gilded example of this model is in the collection of the Danske Kunstindustrimuseum in Copenhagen - In 2016, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was given a wooden variant from the Benedict Silverman collection.
EXHIBITION : The Copenhagen example was the one made by Georges de Feure for his 'boudoir' shown at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900. It was acquired by the museum, along with several other pieces of Art Nouveau shortly after the show.
LITERATURE : Ian Millman, Georges de Feure, Maître du Symbolisme et de l'Art Nouveau, 1992, page 152 - Alastair Duncan, The Paris Salons, 1895-1914 : Furniture, volume 3, page 124 (both for the example shown at the 1900 Paris exhibition).
COLLECTION : American private collection, on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art