Pierre Garnier is one of the most important artistic cabinetmakers of his century. His distinction is based on his long life, during which he produced a wide range of works illustrating the successive styles of the 18th century.
A native of Paris, Pierre Garnier, son of the master cabinetmaker François Garnier and Françoise Courant, was admitted to the master school in 1742. As a member of the Jurande of Carpenters and Joiners, his father was elected juror, a post he held until 1744. Unwilling to follow his father, Garnier moved from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs near the Place Vendôme. A well-known cabinetmaker, his clientele probably consisted of merchants such as Léonard Boudin, but mainly the great empires of the kingdom, to whom he supplied numerous commissions. Among his most regular clients were Louis Georges Erasme, Marshal of France, the Duchess of Mazarin, and the Marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour.
Although Garnier is less known than his colleagues Oeben or Riesener, he is nevertheless one of the greatest patrons and one of the most original masters of the “Greek style”, which today is more widely incorporated into the style of Louis XVI. The first years of his career were marked by the rocaille style, which was fashionable at the time. He was already producing high quality works such as commodes with diamond inlay, rosewood and amaranth, as well as refined secretaries and built-in cabinets with precious wood inlay or lacquer decorations in the taste of China. Garnier’s style is dominated by geometric inlays, lozenges, muntins and variously arranged leaf veneers. These veneers are sometimes divided by very sinuous and strongly interwoven borders. He also created some furniture in the Transition style, but Garnier spent the greatest and most significant part of his career with the advent of Neoclassicism, in which he imposed his style and created very typical works.
This furniture characterizes the “Greek style”, a style with architectural forms and decorations partly influenced by the style of Louis XIV. In addition to this furniture, Garnier also made low bookcases, secretaries with bronze-framed veneers or lacquer finishes, and a series of flat desks.
As evidenced by a text published in the Petites Affiches of 1800, the cabinetmaker’s activity continued after the Revolution until the end of his life.