Georges HOENTSCHEL (1855 – 1915) attributed to

Symbolist Wardrobe with Apple Tree, c. 1910.

Solid oak, gouge-carcarved and painted.
Corner base on rounded uprights. Adjustable shelves.
190 x 165 x 63 cm

Provenance:

– Special commission for the hunting lodge of couturier Jacques Doucet, “Les Nonettes” in Erquigny, in the Clermontois region.

As Jacques Doucet left no personal archives, the definitive identity of this furniture’s creator remains an enigma given the current state of our knowledge.

The “brutalist” execution of the furniture’s body, entirely gouge-carved with its facets deliberately left visible, contrasting with the smooth, polychrome surface of the apple tree with golden fruits, reveals more the hand of an artist than that of a traditional cabinetmaker.
If not Georges Hoentschel himself, its creator is likely an artist gravitating around this multifaceted figure, successively an antique dealer, architect, decorator, furniture designer, ceramist, and collector, a friend of Jacques Doucet, and responsible for the interior design of the couturier’s private mansion on Rue Spontini in Paris from 1904-1907.

Georges Hoentschel created a stoneware vase with bronze mounting, and ceramic fruits, strongly recalling the different parts of the apple tree.
The hypothesis of attribution to Georges Hoentschel’s circle is reinforced by a carved wooden armchair of the same provenance as this wardrobe, a work by the painter and decorator Adrien Karbowski, a collaborator of Georges Hoentschel who introduced him to Jacques Doucet and for whom he would create several pieces of furniture and advise on the interior design of his residences.