OGIER Jean-Marie (EN)

Biographical Article

Jean-Marie Ogier was born in Saint-Chamond on October 29, 1827 (AD 42, 3NUMEC1/3E208_20), into a family working in the textile industry (his father Antoine Ogier was a trimmer). He was the archetype of the industrial artist of the second half of the 19th century: at once artist, worker, enlightened amateur, collector through passion as well as through professional necessity.

He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, where he followed in particular the teachings of Claude Bonnefond (1796-1860), Victor Vibert (1799-1860), and Claude Soulary (1792-1870) (Beauffet J., 2017, p. 161).

He married Catherine Bernard in Saint-Étienne on April 30, 1857. She was a milliner, while he was working as a designer for the Saint-Étienne ribbon factory (AM Saint-Étienne, 3 E 54).

In parallel with this activity as an industrial artist, he was also a painter and portraitist of several Loire personalities. His works are regularly exhibited: in 1857 at the first exhibition of the Société des Amis des Arts de la Loire; between 1864 and 1887 at the salon of the Société des Amis des arts de Lyon; from 1890 to 1894 at the salon of the Société Lyonnaise des beaux-art, as well as at the Exposition des beaux-arts of Saint-Étienne in 1891 (Beauffet J., 2017, p. 161).

Having become a widower, he began to assemble a rich and heterogeneous collection of typologies and various periods (inlays, sculptures...), including weapons, furniture, paintings, ivories, or even ceramics.

Upon his death in Saint-Étienne on January 3, 1900 at the age of 71, Jean-Marie Ogier left his possessions and his collection to Élodie Gérard (Beauffet J., 2007, p. 18; Balay archives, Balay funds, s.c.). According to the wishes of Jean-Marie Ogier, she then bequeathed this collection to the city of Saint-Étienne for its museum on March 14, 1906. Élodie Gérard herself died in Saint-Étienne on July 6, 1912. She also bequeathed 5,000 francs to the museum for an "Ogier" room to be installed there, which was opened in 1913. This room disappeared in the 1930s.

The Collection

Jean-Marie Ogier's collection was bequeathed to the city of Saint-Étienne by his niece, Élodie Gérard, who died on July 6, 1912. The extract from her will, presented to the municipal council on July 12, 1912, indicates the conditions of the bequest: “The artistic collection which belongs to me and which comes to me from Mr. Ogier will be inalienable. It should be placed in the museum of Saint-Étienne, in a room that will bear the name of "Salle Jean-Marie Ogier" in memory of which I make this bequest. This room must be organised within six months of my death and the objects that will make up this selection must be consulted on site [...]" (AM Saint-Etienne 9 C 2 33). To understand the interest of this collection and to make a decision as to the bequest, the Mayor of Saint-Étienne asked the curator of the museum, Jean Grivolat, to carry out the inventory, along with an expert, an auctioneer, and 15 contractors. This inventory was drawn up from July 19 to 24, 1912 (Archives Musée d’Art et d’Industrie (MAI), 1912, s.c.). The list was later copied and annotated in 1965 by Maurice Allemand, curator of the museum. It is made up of 738 numbers, some referring to several objects: by counting them individually, we obtain a collection of 900 works, as well as several sets.

A Heterogeneous Collection

Within this vast collection, only 31 items are identified as coming from the Far East (China, Japan), i.e. barely 3.5% of the collection. Jean-Marie Ogier was not a collector of oriental objects strictly speaking, but a lover of objects of the cabinet of curiosities type, who, as a designer of textiles, could draw inspiration from them for the creation of patterns. Most of the objects bequeathed to the museum were European works of art: furniture (68), armoury and edged weapons, firearms and pieces of armour (185), ceramics (149), locksmithing (55), objects of decorative art ranging from medieval times to the 19th century: metal art objects (65), ivory, carved wood (88), enamels (51), and clocks (17). The collection was completed by manuscripts on vellum (5), books from the 16th to the 19th century (56), and 72 paintings, 22 miniatures and some engravings or drawings (22).

A few pieces stand out from this inventory for their fine quality. We can cite for example the "buffet cabinet with two doors and two drawers on three sides: decoration in coloured wood veneer depicting vases of flowers and foliage in the Louis XIV style. Straight mouldings in black wood: fine Italian workmanship from the 17th century” (Archives MAI, Inventaire Ogier, no 649).

Among the ceramics, 99 pieces represent French manufactures of the 18th century, in particular that of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, including a dish from the Fabrique Clérissy representing a wild boar hunt after an engraving by Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) (MAI Archives, Ogier Inventory, no 236).

Some objects of art are older, such as an "ivory mirror: falcon hunt with two figures on horseback in the middle of a forest and surrounded by an ornament with eight lobes and four auricles, one of which is chipped. Diam. 0.08, French work of the 14th century" (Archives MAI, Inventaire Ogier, no 397).

The paintings in his collection, mainly from the 19th century, are mostly representations of flowers (Dupasquier, no. 650, Lardet, no. 607) or still lives; there are a few landscapes and religious scenes. Jacques Beauffet underlines the presence of an early work (around 1840) by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) (no 653) entitled Pastorale ou Paysage à l’antique (Beauffet J., 2007, p. 18). There are also several portraits, signed in particular by well-known local artists such as Gabriel Tire (1817-1868) and Claude Soulary (1792-1870).

A Collection of Objects from the Far East

The Asian collections consist of decorative arts objects: several porcelain items (dishes, vases, cups and saucers) from China (7) and Japan (7), “cloisonné Chinese enamels" dishes, vases, incense burner (4), a set of netzuké and okimono in ivory (4), a few pieces in stone or soapstone: "rectangular non-engraved Chinese stamp surmounted by a Fô dog, all in greenish soapstone" (Archives MAI, inventaire Ogier n^o 562), "two familiar paintings and comedy scenes in soapstone sculpted in bas-relief of various coloured, lacquered and gilded tones on a painted silk background, all in sliding boxes [...]. Modern Japanese work" (Archives MAI, Ogier inventory no 93).

To complete the armoury collections, we also note a "Chinese command staff in teak wood decorated with jade pieces (incomplete)" (Archives MAI, Ogier inventory no 27) and a "Chinese matchlock rifle. Octagonal cannon inlaid with silver, yellow copper frame (18th century)” (Archives MAI, Ogier inventory no 562).

The inventories make it difficult to date these pieces, for the moment little studied: while precise centuries are not indicated, the general time of realisation is sometimes distinguished by the mention "old work" or "modern".

Finally, it is currently impossible for us to describe the origin of these objects or the precise date of constitution of the collection. Nevertheless, correspondence between Jean-Marie Ogier and Frédéric Noëlas between 1860 and 1880, which alludes to it, suggests that the collection was known by some notables of the Loire from the second half of the 19th century.