A FRENCH GILTWOOD AND GREEN-PAINTED SCREEN

With its exuberant form and lavishly-carved decoration, this splendid screen perfectly evokes the neo-rococo taste prevalent in Europe in the late 19th century. Its trellis pattern and rocaille borders recall the furniture and porcelain of the Louis XV period, while its combination of fancifully carved wood panels with painted scenes of landscapes and pastoral figures call to mind the elaborate boiseries installed in mid-18th century rooms, a taste revived in the Belle Époque. A screen of this monumental scale would, no doubt, have been intended to separate portions of a large salle in a grand residence, perhaps a ballroom or reception hall. A related screen by Antoine Krieger and Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse sold in A Private Collection Volume I, Sotheby’s, New York, 26 October 2006, lot 125 ($329,600).