Recueil de décorations intérieures, comprenant tout ce que a rapport à l'ameublement comme vases, trépieds, candelabres, cassolettes, lustres, girandoles, lampes, chandeliers, cheminées, feux, poêles, pendules, tables ... etc.

Abstract

Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre Francois Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853) first met as architecture students in Paris. They studied the art and architecture of classiccal antiquity together in the French Academy in Rome during the 1780s and returned to Paris at the beginning of the Revolution. Appointed by Napoleon "architects du gouvernement" in 1801, their architecture and interior design work can be found in many of the monuments of Napoleonic Paris, including renovations to the Louvre and Tuilleries Palaces, the Rue de Rivoli, and Place Vendôme, and in such granbd estates as Malmaison and Fontainebleau, near Paris. The design of the Arc du Carousel, located between the Tuilleries and Louvre Palaces in Paris, is also considered among their masterpieces. In addition to their built work, Percier and Fontaine authored numerous books on architecture and design throughout their partnership, becoming the chief exponents of the French Empire style of decorative arts. Commonly positioned as having initiated the Empire style, the "Recueil de Décorations Intérieures" is comprised of 72 plates of projects for interiors and decorative objects designed by Percier and Fontaine. Issued in installments from 1801 to 1812, some editions of Percier and Fontaine's work are hand colored under the author's direct supervision, revealing their intended color schemes.