Paintings in Compigné

Of great preciousness and variety of materials, Compigné paintings were made using a mysterious process: a sheet of tortoiseshell or cardboard to which tin or gold leaf was applied. The surface could then be decorated with gold, silver, gouache and colored varnishes. How the color, gold or silver was attached to the pewter remains a mystery today. These ‘miniatures’, known today as Compigné, were extremely popular in the 1760s. The small format, characteristic of this production, required extremely precise work, probably with the aid of a magnifying glass, to perfect technical details and colors.

Thomas Compigné

Arriving from Italy probably around 1750, Thomas Compigni took the name Compigné when he set up his shop, ‘Le Roi David’, in the Montorgueil neighborhood of Paris, Rue Greneta. As a tabletier, he specialized in the manufacture and sale of boxes, trictrac, a checkers and chess sets, snuffboxes and other cane handles in gold-encrusted blond tortoiseshell. Renowned for the quality of his objects, Thomas Compigné is one of the few 18^th century tabletiers whose name is still known. Between 1766 and 1773, numerous gazettes praised his production of ‘very beautiful objects, inlaid with gold and of different colors, very solid [colors]’. They particularly describe his works, now known as ‘Compigné’. In 1773, he presented the King with two views of the Château de Saint-Hubert and was awarded the title of tabletier privilégié du Roi [King’s tabletier] under the reigns of Louis xv and Louis xvi. His favorite themes were views of towns, monuments and castles, set against parkland or landscapes animated by small figures.

Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), a marine painter

Trained in the southwest of France, Claude-Joseph Vernet was a promising young artist in the local circle from an early age. The Marquis de Caumont supported him in undertaking a journey to Rome in 1734. Rather than focusing on the study of Renaissance masters and classical art, he was drawn to landscape painters and marine artists, particularly the works of Claude Gellée, known as Le Lorrain. Vernet’s art found its true resonance in these genres, and his success among French, Italian, and English patrons was already evident during his Roman period. His name soon became renowned across Europe, a fame further enhanced by the travels of aristocrats undertaking the Grand Tour. In 1745, Joseph Vernet was admitted to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. In 1753, he came back to France: first to Marseille, where he painted several views of the port from different angles, before settling in Paris. The Marquis de Marigny, Directeur Général des Bâtiments du Roi, commissioned him to paint 27 pictures depicting “the most beautiful ports in the kingdom”, one of the most important orders of his career. Although he completed only 15 of the planned canvases, which are now in the Musée National de la Marine and the Musée du Louvre, the Vues des Ports de Franceseries ensured his complete posterity.