Japanese style sofa, attributed to Gabriel Viardot

Basket sofa with an openwork backrest, made of carved stained alder with gold highlights and covered in green velvet. It deploys an ornamental vocabulary of Japanese inspiration. Asian dragons on a background of geometric motifs recalling traditional Japanese temples make up the backrest, while the scrolled armrests rest on chimera heads. The openwork apron also features a dragon mask and rests on four feet ending in lion claws.

Attributed to Gabriel Viardot

BIOGRAPHY
Gabriel Viardot, a woodcarver by trade, made small furniture, fancy items, and carved wooden objects featuring naturalist and animal subjects, some pieces of which were appreciated at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855. However, the importation of similar works from Switzerland and Germany prompted Viardot to innovate. In 1861, Viardot succeeded his father in managing the Parisian workshops on rue Rambuteau and took an interest in the new artistic movement of the time: Japonisme. The house of Viardot would then become one of the first to specialize in the production of furniture "in the Chinese and Japanese style," adapting furniture and objects exported by China and Japan to European tastes and uses. Viardot decorated his furniture with authentic Japanese lacquered panels, Tonkin mother-of-pearl inlays, and superb bronzes for which he designed the models himself, thus giving the whole a luxurious and exotic appearance. Celebrated at exhibitions, Viardot obtained four medals at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867 and a silver medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1878. He was repeatedly awarded gold medals: at the Universal Exhibitions in Antwerp in 1884, and Paris in 1889 and 1900. His workshops on rue des Archives, where Viardot settled in 1878, employed about a hundred cabinetmakers and sculptors around 1885, the year he was promoted to the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honour.