Decorative ornament (3) - France - Modernist Triptych






Graduated in art history with over 25 years' experience in antiques and applied arts appraisal.
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A three-panel Art Nouveau wooden triptych with hand-coloured engravings, each panel 76 cm high, 42 cm wide and 2 cm deep, made in France, hinged to function as a desk screen or decorative divider with a good used condition and signs of age.
Description from the seller
This triptych is a delightful piece within the modernist universe: a set of three carved wooden frames, joined by hinges, that function as a desk screen or a small decorative divider. Each panel houses a colored print from the period, probably from the late 19th or early decades of the 20th century, when Romantic printmaking and the garden-idyllic aesthetic enjoyed enormous popularity.
The frames, with sinuous lines and vegetal ornamentation, fully respond to the modernist taste: soft curves, organic profiles, and a carving that seeks to accompany the image without competing with it. The wood presents that warm and slightly dark tone typical of Catalan and French cabinetmaking of the period, with a satin finish that enhances the grain.
The colored engravings depict costumbrist and bucolic scenes:
• In one, a woman pushes two children on a swing beneath a large tree, an image of domestic tenderness very typical of late Romanticism.
In the central panel, a lady sits in an exuberant garden, surrounded by flowers and peacocks, with a gentleman in the background: a nearly theatrical composition, full of symbolism of courtship and refinement.
• In the third panel, a young woman feeds swans by a pond, a scene of serenity and elegance that recalls the iconography of aristocratic leisure.
The hand-applied color—soft, powdery, with pastel tones—brings life without losing the original delicacy of the engraving. That kind of colored print was highly valued in bourgeois interiors, as it combined affordability with an artistic and sentimental air.
Taken together, the triptych functions as a decorative and narrative object: three windows to an idealized world, framed by a modernist design that elevates them and unifies them.
Certified shipping and good packaging.
Seller's Story
Translated by Google TranslateThis triptych is a delightful piece within the modernist universe: a set of three carved wooden frames, joined by hinges, that function as a desk screen or a small decorative divider. Each panel houses a colored print from the period, probably from the late 19th or early decades of the 20th century, when Romantic printmaking and the garden-idyllic aesthetic enjoyed enormous popularity.
The frames, with sinuous lines and vegetal ornamentation, fully respond to the modernist taste: soft curves, organic profiles, and a carving that seeks to accompany the image without competing with it. The wood presents that warm and slightly dark tone typical of Catalan and French cabinetmaking of the period, with a satin finish that enhances the grain.
The colored engravings depict costumbrist and bucolic scenes:
• In one, a woman pushes two children on a swing beneath a large tree, an image of domestic tenderness very typical of late Romanticism.
In the central panel, a lady sits in an exuberant garden, surrounded by flowers and peacocks, with a gentleman in the background: a nearly theatrical composition, full of symbolism of courtship and refinement.
• In the third panel, a young woman feeds swans by a pond, a scene of serenity and elegance that recalls the iconography of aristocratic leisure.
The hand-applied color—soft, powdery, with pastel tones—brings life without losing the original delicacy of the engraving. That kind of colored print was highly valued in bourgeois interiors, as it combined affordability with an artistic and sentimental air.
Taken together, the triptych functions as a decorative and narrative object: three windows to an idealized world, framed by a modernist design that elevates them and unifies them.
Certified shipping and good packaging.
