Jean-D?mosth?ne Dugourc

(b Versailles, 23 Sept 1749; d Paris, 30 Apr 1825). French designer. He was the only son of Fran?ois Dugourc, controller to the household of the Duc d'Orl?ans. Little precise information has survived regarding his early years and artistic training. He developed his gift for drawing and design as a pupil of Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin. He is thought to have made a brief trip to Italy (c. 1764-5), where he is believed to have met Johann Joachim Winckelmann, events that seem to have inspired his passion for the ancient world and its art. His first known work is an allegory for the opera house at Versailles, executed in honour of the wedding of the Dauphin in May 1770. In November 1776 he married Marie-Anne Ad?la?de B?langer, elder sister of FRAN?OISJOSEPH B?LANGER. Together with B?langer and Georges Jacob, Dugourc worked on the interiors of the ch?teau of Bagatelle, as well as for a glittering private clientele that included the Duc d'Aumont (at the ch?teau of Brunoy, c. 1780-81) and the Duchesse de Mazarin, creating interiors in the late 18th-century Etruscan style. He also collaborated with such leading craftsmen as Pierre Gouthi?re, Fran?ois R?mond and Boulard. He produced numerous designs executed in a rapid, light, energetic style for gilt-bronzes and furniture (e.g. design for chimney-piece with clock, candelabra, vases and fire-dogs, c. 1785; Paris, Mus. A. D?c.). His career was closely linked with court circles: in 1780 he was appointed Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet de Monsieur and in 1784 Surintendant des B?timents de Monsieur and Dessinateur du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. He designed furniture for the Chambre des Bains in the ch?teau of Compi?gne (firescreen, 1785; Lisbon, Mus. Gulbenkian) and a jewel cabinet for Marie-Antoinette (destr.; model, 1787; Baltimore, MD, Walters A.G.). He also had a number of foreign clients, among them Catherine II of Russia, Grand Duke Paul (later Emperor of Russia), General Lansko? and Gustav III of Sweden, for whom he provided set designs for the theatre of Drottningholm.

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