FLEURIOT Angéla (EN)
Biographical article
The name "Fleuriot" is found in an essential document for anyone wishing to study the Parisian Asian art market of the second half of the 19th Century: the guide to the « musée oriental » de l’Union centrale des beaux-arts appliqués à l’industrie (Guide du visiteur au musée oriental, 1869). In 1869, this event brought together most of the Parisian private collections of Asian art: dealers and collectors displayed their objects in several rooms devoted to the art of China, Japan and India. The Visitor's Guide identifies the generous donors while commenting on the exhibition. The name "Madame Fleuriot" is mentioned several times as an exhibitor of several Chinese and Japanese pieces. The first pages of the Visitor's Guide, where one finds the list of donors, associates Madame Fleuriot to an address, that of "16, place de la Madeleine" in Paris (Guide du visiteur au musée oriental, 1869 , n.p.).
Her name can be found at the same address in the Bottin du Commerce between 1851 and 1872 (Gustave Revilliod (1817-1890): Un homme ouvert au monde 2018, p. 114). The name " Fleuriot " is also mentioned, listed among painting dealers. The same can be found in Paul Lacroix's l’Annuaire des artistes et des amateurs (Lacroix P., 1861, p. 59), where "Fleuriot" is mentioned among the "dealers in paintings" in the "addresses useful to artists and amateurs", and in the Annuaire de la Gazette des Beaux-arts, where this name appears as that of the owner of a "private collection of works of art" (Annuaire, 1870, p. 318) and of "industrial arts” (Annuaire, 1870, p. 326). It appears that the shop has traded paintings and works of art, particularly Asian ones , as mentionned in the Paris archives, by the "Calepins des propriétés bâties" from 1853-1870. They indicate that the building at 16, place de the Madeleine in Paris houses, on the ground floor, a " large shop, Fleuriaux (sic), restoration of paintings, store of curiosities " (AP, DIP 4 666, quoted in Gustave Revilliod (1817-1890): Un homme ouvert au monde, 2018, p. 114).
We know that a couple by the name of "Fleuriot" lived in the 8th arrondissement, 2 rue Tronchet, a stone's throw from 16, place de la Madeleine. They are Théophile Fortuné Fleuriot (1797-1874) and his wife Angéla Fleuriot, née Varlet (1818-1890) (AP, V4E3398). Their death certificates do not indicate a profession: that of Théophile Fortuné, dated 1874, stipulates that the latter was then "annuitant", while that of his wife, in 1890, qualifies her as "proprietor" (AD 60, 3 E 115/18). If they were art dealers, it may have been in at an earlier time. We do know that Angéla Fleuriot, who died in Bulles in 1890, was an antique dealer in Paris and close to Gustave Revilliod (1817-1890). She helped him amass his collection and bequeathed four paintings to him ("Chronique Local: Will of Mrs. Fleuriot”, January 10, 1891). She would have given him various kinds of objects including, in particular, paintings, tapestries and ceramics dating from the 1860s to the end of the 1890s (B. Monti, 2015, p. 28). The archives of the Grandidier collection, as well as the Bottin du Commerce and research of auction sales of Asian objects from the second half of the 19th century all confirm this dates as their period of activity. The shop " Fleuriot ", 16, place de la Madeleine, no longer appears in the Bottin after 1872. In addition, all the acquisitions of Ernest Grandidier (1833-1912) from this business are listed prior to 1894. The details of the dates of acquisition of the Grandidier collection do not specify the chronology of these purchases, which may have been made well before 1894 — see L. Chopard, 2020). Finally, the name of Fleuriot is also listed as a major buyer at public sales during 1850-1860, with at least 40 lots bought in Paris between 1858 and 1868 (L. Saint-Raymond, 2019, appendix). Paul Eudel cites them alongside such important dealers in objets d’art and curiosities of the period as Fournier (Eudel P., 1885, p. 18).
It is clearly specified, in the Catalogue du Musée Oriental and in the Annuaire de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts of 1870 (p. 326), that it is " Madame " Fleuriot who exhibits her collections and who trades on the Place de la Madeleine . However, it cannot be determined whether the listing was held by the couple or by Angéla Fleuriot alone. The sale of the Fleuriot collection in February 1870 (Lugt 31756) is in the name of "Monsieur ": this is not proof of Théophile Fortuné Fleuriot's involvement in the trade, this sale catalog suggests that the two spouses were able to do business together. The death of the latter in 1874 would also have occurred only a few years after their withdrawal from the market. Angela Fleuriot would however have continued to advise Gustave Revilliod until his death in 1890.
Angela Fleuriot died at the age of 72 at her home “Monceaux” in the town of Bulles (Oise). The name of her last place of residence misled the press of the time. Several articles have thus attributed the generous bequest of four of her paintings to the Ariana Museum in Geneva to an “altruist Mrs. Fleuriot” from Bulles, in the canton of Friborg, Switzerland (“ Chronique Locale: Aubaine Inexpectée ”, December 25, 1890; “ Dernières Nouvelles ” , December 26, 1890), rather than the Parisian antique dealer Angéla Fleuriot.
The collection
The pieces from the Fleuriot that are now kept in museum collections are primarily objects housed at the Ariana Museum. Angéla Fleuriot provided tapestries, works of art and paintings to Revilliod (Gustave Revilliod (1817-1890): Un homme ouvert au monde, 2018, p. 129). She also bequeathed four canvases attributed to the French painter Charles Joseph Natoire (1700-1777) to the latter. They entered the Ariana Museum after being bequeathed by the Swiss collector to the city of Geneva. Angéla Fleuriot is also concidered the donor of two “plaques de poêles” donated to the l’Union centrale des arts décoratifs in 1882 (UCAD, Registres historiques de l’inventaire, s.c.).
In the second Fleuriot sale on February 1870 (Lugt 31756), many Chinese and Japanese pieces are listed alongside European pieces, including several tapestries. This also includes 157 lots of porcelain from China and Japan (lots 1 to 131 and 166 to 191) auctioned at the sale as well as porcelain from Saxony, Sèvres and ceramics from other European production centers (lots 132 to 165); earthenware (lots 192 to 200); and jewelry. In addition there were Chinese cloisonné enamels, pieces in vernis Martin as well as tapestries (lots 228 to 233).
The Grandidier collection and the Musée Oriental de l’Union Centrale allow us to study in detail the nature of the Asian objects which Angéla Fleuriot traded, perhaps alongside her husband.
Grandidier made 186 acquisitions from the Fleuriot business (AN, 20144787/13, collector's notebooks, 186 inventory numbers recorded), i.e. 237 Chinese and Japanese objects. Among the five Japanese pieces, there are four plates and a cup and saucer, identified as coming from the Hizen and Imari kilns Inventaire de la collection Grandidier en deux registres reliés, inv. G18, G32, G46, G686 and G776). Chinese pieces are more abundant. According to the guidelines that Ernest Grandidier set for his collection (Chopard L., 2020), he acquired porcelain that was identified as Ming dynasy (1368-1644) and that of the Qing (1644-1911). There are three pieces dating to the reign of Emperor Wanli (1573-1620), that today are considered to date to the following dynasty (“ Chefs-d’œuvre de la collection Grandidier de céramiques chinoises ”). Among the objects dating from the Qing dynasty period, we primarily find pieces of the famille rose and the famille verte, mainly plates, cups and saucers. The pieces purchased by Grandidier from Fleuriot vary in quality. He also spent varying amounts of money there, with pieces purchased for 15 francs and more important objects acquired for him costing up to 4000 francs. This is the case of a four-sided vase (inv. G122) now dated from the reign of Kangxi (1662-1722), which Grandidier reproduced in his 1894 work, La Céramique Chinoise (Grandidier E., 1894, plate XX). We also note that Fleuriot sold Grandidier several pieces from the old Chinese porcelain collection of the Elector of Saxony Augustus the Strong (1670-1733) (inv. G49, G56 and G795).
At the 1869 Musée Oriental, Angéla Fleuriot exhibited an important collection of porcelain cups from China and Japan in Showcase 4 of Room A that was for Chinese and Japanese arts (Guide du visiteur au musée oriental, 1869, p. 6). It also featured her dishes and plates from China and Japan (Guide du visiteur au musée oriental, 1869, p. 7), as well as several Chinese and Japanese pieces in Cabinet no. 26 in Room B (Guide du visiteur au musée oriental, 1869, p. 17). The description of the objects is not very detailed; however, some explicit details exist about these objects and their dating. In particular, she exhibited a large Japanese bowl "decorated with European scenes in the style of Watteau" in Room D, which dealt with "the oriental influence" on European arts (Guide du visiteur au musée oriental, 1869, p. 27) as well as a “Porcelain Jug from Korea” in Room F that represented Persian art (Guide du visiteur au musée oriental, 1869, p. 33). The Parisian designer Émile Reiber (1826-1893) reproduced a piece from the Fleuriot collection (Reiber E., 1877, pl. 90) for the exhibition: it is a cup and saucer, in polychrome enamels on glaze decorated with a fan and a rooster that is similar in every way to the G10 piece from the Grandidier collection which originated from the Fleuriot collection. However, there is nothing to confirm that it is the same piece.
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