During the 18th century, the decorative Rococo character of chinoiseries became ever more fashionable in the applied arts. Jean-Baptiste Pillement was one of the most prolific and sought after artists of this period. He travelled extensively, working in Spain, where he was offered the position of First Painter to King José I; England, where he quickly became a successful designer of patterns for the applied arts; and in Poland, he became First Painter to King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, producing decorative panels and paintings for the King's castles in Warsaw.

As a result of trade led by the East India Company, scenes of exotic aesthetic became fashionable and inspired artists to create chinoiseries, such as the works by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) and François Boucher (1703-1710) whose drawings and engravings influenced Chinese taste found in furniture, interior decoration and architecture. Among these are the famous tentures chinoises by the Manufacture Royale de Beauvais from cartoons by Boucher, of which one tapestry is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (inv. BK-1956-62). But of all these artists, as art historians Dawn Jacobson (D. Jacobson, Chinoiserie , London, 1993, p. 75) and William Mills Ivins (W. Mills Ivins Jr., Prints and Books, Informal Papers, Cambridge, 1926, p. 312) note, it is probably Jean Pillement whose work is the most important and prolific.

In 1755, he engraved his first series entitled ‘A New Book of Chinese Ornaments’, and between 1770-3, in what was to be a period of great activity, he completed 24 folios of chinoiseries designs and floral projects. These publications provided motifs that he would draw on, with slight variations, in many of his designs. This lot is one such example of Pillement reprising previous motifs, which can be seen in the examples provided in A. Araujo and N. Saldanha, Jean Pillement - and Landscape Painting in 18th century Portugal, Lisboa, 1997, pp.163-185. In observing the panels and the depicted scenes, as the authors note, 'we may liken this compositional structure to a cage into which we peep at a world admonished by a natural order that verges on the unknown' (op.cit., p. 155). The popularity of Pillement's chinoiserie motifs was not limited to only England and France, but were also circulated as far away as St. Petersburg. Because his motifs were overly intricate, they were easily transferrable and were adopted both in his lifetime and posthumously in the design of ceramics, silver, tapestries and textiles. Indeed, his designs continue to be fashionable today.

For a work of similar design by Pillement, see Christie's, Paris, 27 April 2021, lot 121 (sold €72,000).

Ill. 1. Ornamental element of the collection New Suite of Chinese Drawing Notebooks for use by designers and painters, etching, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, inv. 1921-41-21.