Jean-Gabriel Charvet (1750–1829), also known as Jean Gabriel Charvet, was a French painter, designer and draftsman.
Charvet's reputation rests on twenty-panels of scenic wallpaper titled Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (The Savages of the South Pacific) which combine to form a neoclassical depiction of the explorations of Captain James Cook. The wallpaper was shown in Paris at the Exposition des produits de I’industrie francaise in 1806. Charvet died in Tournon-sur-Rhône, France in 1829.
Biography He was born in Serrières, Ardèche, France. He studied at the École de Dessin in Lyon under the French artist Donat Nonnotte (1708–1785) and worked as a designer for the French wallpaper manufacturer Joseph Dufour et Cie (1752–1827) of Mâcon, France. In 1773, Charvet travelled to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean on business for his uncle, and stayed for four years producing many studies of native flora and fauna, as well as landscapes. By 1785, he had established a drawing school in Annonay, south of Lyon. Annonay had been a papermaking region since the Sixteenth Century.
Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique
Historical Context: Panoramic Wallpaper Production Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (Les Sauvages) is a scenic panoramic wallpaper designed by Jean-Gabriel Charvet and produced by Joseph Dufour et Cie between 1804 and 1805 in Mâcon, France.The wallpaper has also been referred to as Les Paysages de la Mer Pacifique, Les Voyages de Capitaine Cook, Les Sauvages de la mer du Sud, the Captain Cook Wallpaper and the Dufour Wallpaper.
Vivienne Webb, “Biographical and catalogue notes,” in Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, ed. Susan Hall (Australia: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 43. Les Sauvages was one of the first panoramic wallpapers ever produced, premiering at the French Industrial Exposition in 1806. As such, the judge Jean-Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny noted that it was unusual in style and medium describing it as, “perhaps the most curious example of this art”.Odile Nouvel-Kammerer indicates that this was because it resisted neat categorisation as either high or low art. It was an amalgamation of a wall hanging, a tapestry, a mural and decorative wallpaper.
Odile Nouvel-Kammerer, “Reasons for Silence,” in French Scenic Wallpaper 1795-1865 (France: Flammarion, 2000), 4.
Roger Butler, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: in England, America and Australia,” in Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, ed. Susan Hall (Australia: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 16. It was one of the largest panoramic wallpapers produced at this time, consisting of twenty panels and measuring over ten meters in length and over two meters high.The version of Les Sauvages held at the National Gallery of Australia is 170cm in height and 1060cm in length. This size varies as the wallpaper was often altered to fit the size of the room where it was originally housed. Dufour explained in his accompanying prospectus that the amount and orders of the panels would be altered in order to fill any sized room.
Joseph Dufour, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: tableau pour d’écoration en papier peint,” trans. Peter Rudd, in Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, ed. Susan Hall (Australia: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 33.
“Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique,” National Gallery of Australia, accessed April 23, 2019, https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=126293. Endless paper was not available on a commercial scale until 1810, therefore, the large panels were made from handmade linen rag paper which was joined at the edges.Machine-made continuous paper was invented but was not commercially available until 1810.
Susie Bioletti, Ranson Davey and Rose Peel, “Made in Maçon: Investigations into the production of wallpaper,” in Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, ed. Susan Hall (Australia: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 22. A light blue water-based ground was applied to the paper before the woodblocks printed the design using vivid colour pigments like green verditer and Prussian blue.These colour pigments were bound by animal glue.
Bioletti, Davey and Peel, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: in England, America and Australia,” 22. Designs for each shade of colour were carved from separate blocks and printed in layers in order to achieve a detailed design and naturalistic depiction of light and shade.To correct any errors in print registration and add further detail gouache was hand painted with stencils on the wallpaper.
Robert Futernick, “Conservation of Scenic Wallpapers: “Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique”,” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 20, no. 2, (Spring 1981): 139-146. The conservation department at the National Gallery of Australia reported that up to seven different shades were used to achieve naturalistic gradients in skin tone in order to imitate depth of form.Bioletti, Davey and Peel, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: in England, America and Australia,” 22.
Historical Context: Subject Matter Les Sauvages depicts First Nation's people from throughout the Pacific set in a fictional tropical setting. The work was inspired by the exploration voyages of Captain James Cook between 1768 and 1779 and Jean François de La Pérouse in 1785.Dufour notes in his prospectus that the tropic location represented in the artwork was based on Tahiti. Explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville described Tahiti as a natural paradise where its beautiful inhabitants lived in harmony and happiness. Bougainville stated in his account that “I never saw men better made, and whose limbs were proportionate” he also deifies the bodies of women as “Venus…the celestial form of that goddess”.
Dufour, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: tableau pour d’écoration en papier peint,” 33.
L. Antoine de Bougainville, Voyage Round the World, trans. J.R. Forster, (London: J. Exshar, 1772), 249. Following these expeditions, the Pacific captured the imagination of Europe and America and was the inspiration for literature, plays and images which reached a wide audience.One of the ways that images were circulated was through publications. One of the most popular was The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook which contained engravings created after John Webber’s original drawings. Accompanying this volume was an atlas which contained images of botanical specimens, landscapes and First Nations peoples. Images produced by official voyage artists like John Webber were engraved and published, inspiring other exotic Pacific depictions like the Tableau des decouvertes du Capne. Cook & de la Perouse by Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur.Les Sauvages censors the violence present in the original drawings and etchings. It retains the scene of Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii but places it far in the background.
Vivienne Webb, “Voyages,” in Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, ed. Susan Hall (Australia: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 11. Similarities in the colour palette and figurative vignettes in Les Sauvages indicate that Saint-Sauveur's Tableau may have inspired the work.Webb, “Voyages,” 11. Primary sources, like the wallpaper's accompanying prospectus produced by Joseph Dufour in 1806, indicate that the subject of exploration and representations of the Pacific were very popular with a nineteenth century audience.Dufour in his prospectus indicates that it was easy to access information on the voyages to illuminate the imagery in Les Sauvages. He states “we must refer our readers to the abridged general history of the voyages by M. de la Harpe… this book being easier to obtain than the original narratives of the explorers”. The reference to a book which was easier to obtain also supports the intention to appeal to a broad audience. The subjects for scenic wallpaper were chosen for commercial success, therefore we can comprehend that the Pacific was a popular subject at this time.
Dufour, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: tableau pour d’écoration en papier peint,” 34.
Nouvel-Kammerer, “Reasons for Silence,” 23. The interest was encouraged by Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s notion of the noble savage and the Pacific as a moral utopian civilization.Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the origin of inequality, trans. Donald A. Cress, (Indianapolis: Hackett Pub.Co., 1992). Les Sauvages perpetuates Rousseau’s stereotype, depicting homogenized races, living in harmony and peace.Edward Said has critiqued this type of homogenised racial depiction in his seminal text Orientalism.
Edward Said, Orientalism, (New York: Random House, 1979). Les Sauvages also demonstrates another contradictory Enlightenment ideal of pride in man’s scientific innovations, indicated by the celebration of exploration. The depiction of the Pacific seen in Les Sauvages is typical of the period, celebrating progress and innovation as well as a nostalgia for an imagined utopian past.
During the early nineteenth century there was a revival of the artistic style and ideals of the classical world, spurred by the excavation of sites like Pompeii in 1748 which uncovered stylised frescoes, mosaics and sculptures. Les Sauvages demonstrates this influence through its neoclassical style.The Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms describes characteristics of Neoclassicism as including balance, three dimensional forms, the illusion of depth and polished surface textures.
“Neoclassicism,” Oxford Reference, accessed April 23, 2019, http://www.oxfordreference.com.virtual.anu.edu.au/view/10.1093/acref/9780191807671.001.0001/acref-9780191807671-e-956.
“Pompeii,” Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed May 1, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/place/Pompeii. This style can be seen in the illusion of depth created by the use of lighter shades of colour in the background, the balanced composition and the figures appearing rounded and flesh-like. The work imitates the natural world through the use of chiaroscuro, illustrating a light source which naturally illuminates and shadows the figures, fauna and the landscape.
Purpose and Popularity Within Dufour’s prospectus, he articulates that the aim of the wallpaper was to provide aesthetic pleasure and education. Dufour notes that “without leaving his apartment, a studious man reading the history of the voyages… might think himself… in the presence of the depicted people”.Dufour, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: tableau pour d’écoration en papier peint,” 33. This suggested value of education and self-improvement paired with commercial availability indicate that the intended clientele of Les Sauvages was middle class.Butler, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: in England, America and Australia,” 16. Notably, the development of panoramic wallpaper was cheaper to produce and install than custom made tapestries or murals and thus was a more accessible form of wall decoration. Additionally, the Pacific motif was extremely popular and appealed to the fashions and philosophies of the time. Despite pedagogical intentions, it is clear from the neoclassical costumes, generalised setting and homogenized racial cultures that this wallpaper was developed to “please the eye” more than to convey an accurate depiction of the Pacific.Dufour stated his aim was “to try and please the eye and to excited the imagination without taxing it”. This quote shows that the aesthetic quality of the work was tantamount.
Dufour, “Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique: tableau pour d’écoration en papier peint,” 33. The wallpaper was most commonly hung in shared or social spaces in the home like parlours.Nouvel-Kammerer, “Reasons for Silence,” 25.