The Louis XV style

The Louis XV style was originally a characteristic style of seating furniture that later influenced all the art of its time.

This style was purely a creation of cabinetmakers and, in particular, the result of a great technical advance in the manufacture of seating furniture. It was the perfect mastery of the joints and the strength of the wood that made it possible to do away with the heavy struts, to make the frames lighter and to dare to have curved legs.

It is almost always a technical innovation that puts an end to the repetition of classical styles, allows the exploration of new forms and triggers the appearance of a stylistic renewal. This is particularly true of the Gothic style, the Louis XV style and Art Nouveau. Three currents characterised by their curved lines and mastery of one material: stone for the first, wood for the second and metal for the third.

The inventors of the Louis XV style are true creators in the modern sense of the word, revolutionising the way one looks at furniture and interior decoration.

In many books, this style is referred to as rocaille or rococo, especially when it refers to complete designs for interior decoration made by ornamentalists.

Period

The Louis XV styl

e developed mainly in the second quarter of the 18th century (c. 1730 to 1760), announced already in the Régence style and continued in the following periods, especially in the provinces. It only roughly coincides with the monarch’s long reign: 1715-1774. It was very daring in its time and experienced renewed success in the furniture produced at the end of the 19th century.

The undulating lines of the Louis XV style gradually gave way to the rigid majesty of the Louis XVI style in the following period, which is known as the transitional style.

Political and cultural situation

Louis XV, who ascended the throne in 1715 after the death of his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five, was declared of age in 1723 on the threshold of his fourteenth year, ending the regency of his great-uncle Philippe, Duke of Orléans. The king and especially his wife Marie Leszczyńska had to maintain an extensive court and surrounded themselves with artists and craftsmen. This pageantry continued until the 1760s, marking the end of the style before the numerous bereavements that affected the monarch’s final years (1752 and 1759 his eldest daughters, 1761 his grandson and second heir, 1763 his grand daughter, the wife of the future emperor, 1764 the Marquise de Pompadour, 1765 the Dauphin, 1767 the Dauphine, 1768 the Queen).

Previous or already existing styles

The Louis XV style follows the Régence style, which is a predecessor of it, in that it gradually abandoned the classical inspiration that had prevailed since the Renaissance and allowed itself to be seduced by the Baroque.

Emblematic furniture of the Louis XV style.

The furniture consists mainly of small pieces of furniture such as.

• Small chests of drawers with two drawers and hidden crossbars
• small tables or serving platters
• all kinds of seating
• game tables