Gueridon Table by Louis Majorelle

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Gueridon Table by Louis Majorelle

About the Item

A French Art Nouveau marble top guéridon by Louis Majorelle. The legs, apron and cross piece of this triangular table are carved with flowers, vines and leaves. Fashioned of marble and carved and molded mahogany, the Chevrefuille guéridon's sophisticated and dynamic design is enhanced by the sinuous curves of its chevrefuille (honeysuckle) motif. In this piece, Majorelle breathes new life into old tradition.The tabletop is inset with the highest grade rosso di verona marble: white veined orange nodules set within a red matrix. Circa 1900s. The guéridon's top, apron, legs and stretcher are carved with chevrefuille (honeysuckle) motif. The two words that make up chevrefoil, chevre (from chevreuil (roe deer)) and feuille (leaf), reveal the vine's negative connotation within French culture. Chevreuil fauns putatively became intoxicated from the shoots of the chevrefeuille. The chevreuil was so named after the chevre (goat) due to its goat like head. The goat with its nineteenth century evocation of the occult and sexuality only added to the plant's profanity. The Chevrefuille guéridon refers to Marie de France's thirteenth century "Chevrefeuille", a French variation of the Tristan Legend. Majorelle had previously created furniture based on the flowers of the Tristan legend, but none so magnificently convey the essence of the story as this guéridon. With the ubiquity of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in fin-de-siecle France, contemporary artistic circles would have easily understood the work's iconography. Isolde had told Tristan that if a chevrefuille (honeysuckle vine) wraps itself around a branch of hazelwood (noisitier), the two could not be separated without killing them both. While lying in wait for Isolde, Tristan carves a line into a hazelwood branch and plants it along her courtly procession: "Belle amie, ainsi en est-il de nous: Ni vous sans moi, ni moi sans vous!" "Beautiful friend so it is with us: neither you without me, or me without you." After the lover's commit suicide, a hazel entwined by a honeysuckle emerge from their grave despite King Mark's attempt to exterminate them. Despite the illicit nature of the lover's affair, the couple never consummate, thus maintaining Isolde's virginity. The honeysuckle's deforms the hazel tree, minimizing its utility. Through the form of the table and the honeysuckle's iconographic meaning, Majorelle creates drama between the sacred and the profane. The form of the guéridon evokes the architecture of the gothic church, from the reuleaux shape of the tabletop to the y-shaped dome of the stretcher. The honeysuckle twists about the table without corrupting the table's divine form, thereby creating the purity of the union in death. This message was communicated in "Liebestod", the climactic end of Tristan und Isolde that literally means love-death. A similar gueridon appears in "Majorelle - Nancy: décorations d'intérieurs: meubles, tentures, bronzes, ferronneries" (the 1906 Majorelle catalogue).

Creator:
Louis Majorelle (Maker)
Dimensions:
Height: 31.5 in (80.01 cm)Diameter: 23.75 in (60.33 cm)
Style:
Art Nouveau (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Marble,Wood,Carved
Place of Origin:
France
Period:
1900-1909
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1900s
Condition:
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: F179021stDibs: LU88548161663