Getty Museum
Music Stand (Pupitre)
Creator
Martin CarlinFrench Artist · 1730–1785
All works by this person →In spite of his French name, Martin Carlin was born in Germany and emigrated to Paris to become an *ébéniste* . He settled there with other German and Flemish craftsmen and took employment in the workshop of Jean-François Oeben, whose sister he married. Inventories made after Carlin's death show that the *ébéniste* and his wife lived modestly in a five-room apartment in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1770–1775
- Medium
- Oak veneered with tulipwood, amaranth (or purple heart), holly and fruitwood, and incised with colored mastics; gilt bronze mounts
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Decorative Arts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Special furniture forms, such as this music stand, began to develop in the middle of the 1700s. French designers and furnituremakers created new, highly specific forms of furniture to meet their patrons’ needs. Though created for a single purpose, this music stand still possesses a great deal of versatility. A musician could raise or lower the rectangular music rest depending on if they stood or sat. They could use this stand during the evening because of the extending arms that held candles to illuminate the sheet music. Its portability meant that musicians could move this stand from a grand ballroom to an intimate *salon* with ease. The elegant decorations in the wood on the music rest and the shelf ensured the music stand would appear as a lavish object coordinated with the other furniture pieces when not in use.
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