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Beaux Arts Folk Art

BEAUX ARTS STYLE

Beaux Arts furniture included chairs replicating models from the Renaissance and sofas inspired by Louis XIV. These pieces filled high-ceilinged rooms that featured tapestries fit for a medieval castle and were illuminated by crystal chandeliers reminiscent of those in European palaces. Leon Marcotte Company created furnishings for the White House mimicking the style of Louis XVI, while in France, cabinetmaker Louis Majorelle reproduced 18th-century pieces that would influence his later Art Nouveau style.

Students at the École des Beaux-Arts in 19th-century Paris meticulously sketched Roman and Greek art and architecture as part of a curriculum that elevated the classical world. This reverence for history informed the architecture and design being constructed in the French capital and beyond, where columns and pediments were joined with elements referencing the Renaissance and Baroque eras, culminating in grand civic buildings such as the Palais Garnier opera house constructed under Napoleon III.

Beaux Arts style, also known as Classical Eclecticism for its flamboyant mixing of influences, made its way to the United States in the late 19th century through American architects who studied in Paris, like Richard Morris Hunt and Charles Follen McKim. They designed monumental turn-of-the-century buildings like train stations, libraries, museums and mansions that featured soaring entry halls and grand stairways with nearly every surface embellished, from mosaic floors to stained-glass ceilings. The luxurious interiors of these Beaux Arts buildings, which weren’t crowded with objects as in the Victorian era, matched this spirit of opulence and embraced the past.

Find a collection of Beaux Arts decorative objects, lighting, wall decorations and other furniture on 1stDibs.

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Style: Beaux Arts
Ceramic Pitcher with Glaze Decoration by Accolay, circa 1960-1970
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A ceramic pitcher with glaze decoration by Accolay. Perfect original conditions. Signed under the base, Circa 1960-1970.
Category

20th Century French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Ceramic Sculptural Vase to La Borne, Signed at the Base, circa 1970
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A big ceramic vase to La Borne. Perfect original conditions. circa 1970. Signed at the base.
Category

20th Century French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware Sculpture by Maarten Stuer, Entitled "Bloc in Motion", 2020
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A ceramic sculpture "Bloc in motion" by Maarten Stuer. This piece can be put indoor or outdoor. Artist monogram under the base. 2020. Unique piece.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Unique and Extraordinary Ceramic Sink by Michelle Hartmann, "Les 2 Potiers"
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
An unique and extraordinary ceramic sink by Michelle Hartmann (Born in 1936) "Michell" . "Les 2 Potiers". Perfect original conditions, circa 1970-...
Category

20th Century French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Rare Monumental Ceramic Vase by Daniel Maes, circa 1992
By Daniel Maes
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A rare monumental ceramic vase by Daniel Maes. Perfect conditions. Signed and dated at the base, circa 1992.
Category

20th Century French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Square stoneware pot with abstract decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Square stoneware pot with abstract decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram under the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 8.8’ x 8.5’ x 6.7’ inches.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Square stoneware pot with abstract decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Square stoneware pot with abstract decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram under the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 9.2’ x 9’ x 7.5’ inches.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Square stoneware pot with abstract decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Square stoneware pot with abstract decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram under the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 11’ x 9.8’ x 5.1’ inches.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Earthenware sculpture by Georges Martin, circa 1980- 1990
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Earthenware sculpture vase by Georges Martin. Artist monogram on the base. Unique piece. Circa 1980- 1990. H : 18.9 x 8.7 x 15.7 inches.
Category

20th Century French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware duck sculpture by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980.
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Stoneware duck sculpture by Georges Martin. Unique piece. Artist monogram on the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 12.9 x 11.8 x 24.8 inches.
Category

20th Century French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware duck sculpture by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980.
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Stoneware duck sculpture by Georges Martin. Artist monogram on the base. Unique piece. Circa 1970-1980. H : 12.6 x 9.8 x 19.7 inches.
Category

20th Century French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980.
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram on the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 7.9 x 7.9 inches (ceramic only). Sold with a European electrical system.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980.
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram on the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 14.6 x 7.5 inches (ceramic only). Sold with a European electrical system.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980.
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram on the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 5.9 x 10.2 inches (ceramic only). Sold with a European electrical system.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980.
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram on the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 6.7 x 11 inches (ceramic only). Sold with a European electrical system.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980.
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram on the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 11.8 x 11.4 inches (ceramic only). Sold with a European electrical system.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980.
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Stoneware lamp with geometric decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram on the base. Circa 1970-1980. H : 7.1 x 8.7 inches (ceramic only). Sold with a European electrical system.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Square stoneware pot with abstract decoration by Georges Martin, circa 1970-1980
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Square stoneware pot with abstract decoration by Georges Martin. Artist monogram under the base. Circa 1970-1980. Unique piece.
Category

1970s French Vintage Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Portrait of a Gentleman in pastel and Charcoal by Thomas Price Downes
Located in Godshill, Isle of Wight
Portrait of a Gentleman in pastel and Charcoal by Thomas Price Downes A Beautifully executed piece of an unnamed Gentleman sitting in a chair at his desk The Drawing is in fair cond...
Category

19th Century Antique Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Paper

A porcelain sculpture by Wayne Fischer, 2022
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A porcelain sculpture by Wayne Fischer. Perfect original conditions. Signed. Unique piece. 2022. How can an inert object produce deeply unsuspecting, indecipherable, uncontrollable emotions? Wayne Fischer is an artist who can create works that force one to ask such moving questions as this. If he doesn’t know why, if he can’t explain the deepest reasons of his artistic research, he definitely knows the workings and limitations of the artistic process he invented. He has never deviated from the course he set for himself since university; translate life. The works presented here show the evolution of his creations over the past thirty years. If Wayne Fischer has received several international prizes and quickly obtained the recognition of his peers in ceramics, nevertheless he retains a singular position at once unavoidable and disturbing. His sculptures are paradoxical, powerful and sensual, and cause a certain unease. They are beautiful, carnal, touchable, all the while being outside the standard idea of beauty. The ambiguity of attraction and rejection is at the heart of this evolution. The pieces from the 1980s and 90s are imposing by their size, stature and symmetry, which give them balance. They generate surprise, curiosity and play between contrasts that are both soft and aggressive. They reference the body, muscles, and torso, without presenting an exact reality. They are double-faced, seductive, and enigmatic. Wayne’s shapes are inspired by shells, bivalves, sometimes presented as though they are floating in space. But the reference of the marine world to the mysterious female body has only one interpretation and only history and emotion condition the reaction of the spectator: he accepts or refuses to see, to be seduced. He is touched or he flees. The more recent sculptures are appreciated in the fullness of their round volume and the search for a pure universal beauty. “Metamorphosis,” the work recently awarded by the Bettencourt Foundation, is from this series of pieces wheel- thrown and deformed which pushes the porcelain from the inside so the bulges evoke the movement of waves or the musculature of several bodies. The exactness, the clean breaks, the assurance of lines and valleys are testimony to the interior power that governs the creation. The life energy expressed is also felt by the artist as the origin of ceramics. All the pieces are curved and tense. They show no marking, no sign of the hand, no imprints, and yet give an impression of spontaneity, as if a dropped piece of clay found its form by chance. Depending on the angles, the content becomes “the origins of the world...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Porcelain Sculpture by Wayne Fischer, 2007
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A porcelain sculpture by Wayne Fischer. Perfect original conditions. Signed. Unique piece. 2007. How can an inert object produce deeply unsuspecting, indecipherable, uncontrollable emotions? Wayne Fischer is an artist who can create works that force one to ask such moving questions as this. If he doesn’t know why, if he can’t explain the deepest reasons of his artistic research, he definitely knows the workings and limitations of the artistic process he invented. He has never deviated from the course he set for himself since university; translate life. The works presented here show the evolution of his creations over the past thirty years. If Wayne Fischer has received several international prizes and quickly obtained the recognition of his peers in ceramics, nevertheless he retains a singular position at once unavoidable and disturbing. His sculptures are paradoxical, powerful and sensual, and cause a certain unease. They are beautiful, carnal, touchable, all the while being outside the standard idea of beauty. The ambiguity of attraction and rejection is at the heart of this evolution. The pieces from the 1980s and 90s are imposing by their size, stature and symmetry, which give them balance. They generate surprise, curiosity and play between contrasts that are both soft and aggressive. They reference the body, muscles, and torso, without presenting an exact reality. They are double-faced, seductive, and enigmatic. Wayne’s shapes are inspired by shells, bivalves, sometimes presented as though they are floating in space. But the reference of the marine world to the mysterious female body has only one interpretation and only history and emotion condition the reaction of the spectator: he accepts or refuses to see, to be seduced. He is touched or he flees. The more recent sculptures are appreciated in the fullness of their round volume and the search for a pure universal beauty. “Metamorphosis,” the work recently awarded by the Bettencourt Foundation, is from this series of pieces wheel- thrown and deformed which pushes the porcelain from the inside so the bulges evoke the movement of waves or the musculature of several bodies. The exactness, the clean breaks, the assurance of lines and valleys are testimony to the interior power that governs the creation. The life energy expressed is also felt by the artist as the origin of ceramics. All the pieces are curved and tense. They show no marking, no sign of the hand, no imprints, and yet give an impression of spontaneity, as if a dropped piece of clay found its form by chance. Depending on the angles, the content becomes “the origins of the world”. Femininity and sensuality are exalted. Inspired by the body, before and after birth, or simply the sea, the parts of the sculpture conjugate around a mysterious interior cavity, secret and troubling. The interior wall doesn’t correspond to the exterior, and has its own volumes, deformities, and intimacy. The pieces present two kinds of interior: one open, and partially uncovered, the other totally hidden inside. The differences of their respective deformation reinforce the impression of life : the subjective representation of muscles and bones, of bulges pushed by an interior force, like a visceral movement of respiration. The surface of the ceramic is crackled but soft and fine, even reflecting light like the skin. The nuances of color reinforce the expression of sensuality. The alignment of technique and what it causes one to see and feel has rarely been so intimately successful. Wayne Fischer perfected his technique in the 1970s and has remained faithful to it. He adds fibers to porcelain clay that has been chosen for its whiteness to create and accentuate volume around empty space, by assembling slabs or thrown pieces. Then, he makes another piece that takes its place inside; both parts are formed with no hand...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

A porcelain sculpture by Wayne Fischer, 2022
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A porcelain sculpture by Wayne Fischer. Perfect original conditions. Signed. Unique piece. 2022. How can an inert object produce deeply unsuspecting, indecipherable, uncontrollable emotions? Wayne Fischer is an artist who can create works that force one to ask such moving questions as this. If he doesn’t know why, if he can’t explain the deepest reasons of his artistic research, he definitely knows the workings and limitations of the artistic process he invented. He has never deviated from the course he set for himself since university; translate life. The works presented here show the evolution of his creations over the past thirty years. If Wayne Fischer has received several international prizes and quickly obtained the recognition of his peers in ceramics, nevertheless he retains a singular position at once unavoidable and disturbing. His sculptures are paradoxical, powerful and sensual, and cause a certain unease. They are beautiful, carnal, touchable, all the while being outside the standard idea of beauty. The ambiguity of attraction and rejection is at the heart of this evolution. The pieces from the 1980s and 90s are imposing by their size, stature and symmetry, which give them balance. They generate surprise, curiosity and play between contrasts that are both soft and aggressive. They reference the body, muscles, and torso, without presenting an exact reality. They are double-faced, seductive, and enigmatic. Wayne’s shapes are inspired by shells, bivalves, sometimes presented as though they are floating in space. But the reference of the marine world to the mysterious female body has only one interpretation and only history and emotion condition the reaction of the spectator: he accepts or refuses to see, to be seduced. He is touched or he flees. The more recent sculptures are appreciated in the fullness of their round volume and the search for a pure universal beauty. “Metamorphosis,” the work recently awarded by the Bettencourt Foundation, is from this series of pieces wheel- thrown and deformed which pushes the porcelain from the inside so the bulges evoke the movement of waves or the musculature of several bodies. The exactness, the clean breaks, the assurance of lines and valleys are testimony to the interior power that governs the creation. The life energy expressed is also felt by the artist as the origin of ceramics. All the pieces are curved and tense. They show no marking, no sign of the hand, no imprints, and yet give an impression of spontaneity, as if a dropped piece of clay found its form by chance. Depending on the angles, the content becomes “the origins of the world”. Femininity and sensuality are exalted. Inspired by the body, before and after birth, or simply the sea, the parts of the sculpture conjugate around a mysterious interior cavity, secret and troubling. The interior wall doesn’t correspond to the exterior, and has its own volumes, deformities, and intimacy. The pieces present two kinds of interior: one open, and partially uncovered, the other totally hidden inside. The differences of their respective deformation reinforce the impression of life : the subjective representation of muscles and bones, of bulges pushed by an interior force, like a visceral movement of respiration. The surface of the ceramic is crackled but soft and fine, even reflecting light like the skin. The nuances of color reinforce the expression of sensuality. The alignment of technique and what it causes one to see and feel has rarely been so intimately successful. Wayne Fischer perfected his technique in the 1970s and has remained faithful to it. He adds fibers to porcelain clay that has been chosen for its whiteness to create and accentuate volume around empty space, by assembling slabs or thrown pieces. Then, he makes another piece that takes its place inside; both parts are formed with no hand...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware Sculpture by Maarten Stuer, Entitled "Bloc in Motion", 2020
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A ceramic sculpture "Bloc in motion" by Maarten Stuer. This piece can be put indoor or outdoor. Artist monogram under the base. 2020. Unique piece.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Stoneware Sculpture by Maarten Stuer, Entitled "Bloc in Motion", 2020
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A ceramic sculpture "Bloc in motion" by Maarten Stuer. This piece can be put indoor or outdoor. Artist monogram under the base. 2020. Unique piece.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary French Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Ceramic

Good Large Bust of William Shakespeare
Located in Godshill, Isle of Wight
A Good Large Bust of William Shakespeare A Good Large Bust of William Shakespeare, this is a good quality bust, it is made in plaster and has a good pati...
Category

Mid-20th Century Beaux Arts Folk Art

Materials

Plaster

Beaux Arts folk art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a broad range of unique Beaux Arts folk art for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage folk art created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include folk art, decorative objects, serveware, ceramics, silver and glass and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with ceramic, metal and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Beaux Arts folk art made in a specific country, there are Europe, France, and Asia pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original folk art, popular names associated with this style include Wayne Fischer, Anne Barrès, Camille Virot, and Jean-Pierre Bonardot. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for folk art differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $588 and tops out at $58,806 while the average work can sell for $1,996.

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