Getty Museum

Bureau Plat

Date

1777

Medium

Oak and fir veneered with bloodwood, amaranth and stained maple; gilt-bronze mounts; modern leather top

Culture

French

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

This desk, called a *bureau plat* in French, was made by Jean Henri Riesener, an official cabinetmaker to King Louis XVI of France (1754 – 1793). His wife, Queen Marie-Antoinette (1755 – 1793), commissioned Riesener to make this desk for her husband. When this *bureau plat* was completed in 1777, it was installed at the Petit Trianon—Marie-Antoinette’s Neoclassical mansion on the grounds of Versailles—in a room reserved for the King. Like the architecture of the Petit Trianon, the ornamentation of this desk exhibits design elements found in the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome, referred to as the Neoclassical style. In the narrow horizontal bands (friezes) along the sides of the desk, Riesener used gilt-bronze mounts shaped like interlocking circles. He interspersed this geometric pattern with central panels of modeled roses, berries, and acanthus leaves. Barely noticeable are the cleverly disguised keyholes in the middle of these gilded mounts. As part of an artistic exchange between the Getty Museum and the Palace of Versailles, the desk is currently on long-term loan to the Petit Trianon, where it is displayed in the room for which it was made.

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