| Abstrakt: |
Among the many hundreds of sculptor's ateliers that transformed French houses in the 18th Century, very few names have come down to posterity. The name of Jacques Verberckt is known because, with the Rousseaus, he was the principal author of Louis XV's apartments in various palaces, notably Versailles. But in fact little is known about his life or his activities, except for a few works on record at Versailles. In this essay, we study the progress of Verberckt's career: he was originally the successor of an association of sculptors operating in Versailles between 1699 and 1736. He gradually obtained important works for execution by his own team. We mention his working methods, his involvement in the preparatory drawings for carved pieces (e.g. project foe the fountain at the old Bordeaux Customs, a drawing formerly attributed to Pineau, and a study for Choisy), and his works for private customers: several items are restored to his credit, such as paneling in the Hôtel de Soyécourt, 51 rue de l'Université, formerly thought to he by Pineau. He also recovers the wood carvings in the Apothicairerie at the Hôtel des Invalides which will almost certainly enable a large share of the apartments of the Princess of Soubise in Paris to be restored to his authorship. An attempt is made to analyze his style, taking works after 1736 into consideration (i.e., when he was working with his own atelier). These new credits also show that the decoration of Louis XV's small apartments (1737-1739) is in fact the culminating point of the wrought iron style by the Société pour les Batiments du Roi, and not the beginning of a new style. Later works to the Cabinet du Roi bring out the achievements of Verberckt's art, compared with the other great Versailles atelier of Jules-Antoine Rousseau. Lastly, a study of his collection of paintings, drawings and engravings reveals his personal taste as an art connoiseur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
