Enfilade

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An ADAF online presentation (as noted at Events in the Field, the ever-useful calendar maintained by The Decorative Arts Trust) . . .

Peter Kenny | Forging a New Vernacular: French Ébéniste in Federal New York
Online, American Decorative Arts Forum, 21 May 2024, 9pm (ET)

Charles-Honoré Lannuier (1779–1819) arrived in New York in the spring of 1803 a thoroughly-trained Parisian ébéniste who, according to his inaugural newspaper advertisement, had “worked at his trade with the most celebrated Cabinet Makers of Europe.”

Charles-Honoré Lannuier, Pier Table, 1815–19, mahogany, mahogany veneer, pine, tulip poplar, maple, marble, gilded brass, die-stamped brass, plate glass, 35 inches wide (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018.30a, b).

Well-versed in the elegant forms of the late Louis XVI period, which still held sway during the earliest period of his training in Paris, Lannuier’s design vocabulary at the time of his arrival also included the harder edged yet brilliant neoclassical style of post-Revolutionary France known as Directoire (1795–99), and the Consulat (1799–1804), a heavier more monumental style featuring the more archaeologically correct forms of le goût antique. This was Lannuier’s Parisian stylistic legacy. How he transformed this legacy, ultimately becoming one of the two principal leaders of the New York school of cabinetmaking alongside his greatest rival, Duncan Phyfe, is an inspiring and a uniquely American story.

After a thirty-year career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Peter M. Kenny retired in 2014 as the Ruth Bigelow Wriston Curator of American Decorative Arts and Administrator of the American Wing. From 2015 to 2020 he served as co-president of Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, where he was responsible for the overall management and curatorial vision of its seven historic houses in New York City, the Hudson River Valley, North and South Carolina, and the U. S. Virgin Islands. A nationally recognized expert on early American furniture, he has lectured extensively on the subject at American museums and universities. The catalogs to his major exhibitions on the renowned cabinetmakers Charles-Honoré Lannuier (1779–1819) and Duncan Phyfe (1770–1854) garnered the Robert C. Smith Award of the Decorative Arts Society, and the Henry Allan Moe Prize from the New York State Historical Association. He was the 2015 recipient of the Eric M. Wunsch Award for Excellence in the American Arts and the 2018 Antiques Dealers’ Association of America Award of Merit. Mr. Kenny serves on the boards of The Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee, which publishes the journals, American Furniture and Ceramics in America, Boscobel Restoration, Inc. in Garrison, New York, and Hyde Hall in Cooperstown, NY. He also serves as a Scholarly Advisor for Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, NY. Mr. Kenny is a graduate of Montclair State University and received his MA from the Cooperstown Graduate Program (State University of New York College at Oneonta) in History Museum Studies.

The American Decorative Arts Forum (ADAF) encourages the study, understanding, enjoyment and preservation of American art and design from their earliest beginnings to the present. Founded in 1983 to promote the study and appreciation of decorative arts, the ADAF has broadened its scope to include many areas of American fine arts and design, including fashion and architecture. The Forum sponsors up to twelve lectures annually by nationally recognized experts which are held in-person at the Gunn Theater, Legion of Honor, San Francisco and/or via Zoom. Members also have access to special events, including curator-led tours of exhibitions, visits to private collections, and travel opportunities. Members also receive a newsletter and emails containing updates and schedules of lectures and events.