Gilles Joubert

Who was Gilles Joubert?

Gilles Joubert was a Parisian ébéniste who worked for the Garde-Meuble of Louis XV for two and a half decades, beginning in 1748, earning the title ébéniste ordinaire du Garde-Meuble in 1758, and finally that of ébéniste du roi on the death of Jean-François Oeben in 1763. He produced case furniture in a robust Rococo style, ranging from simple veneered bidets to grand commodes that integrated gilt-bronze mounts into the forms of furniture with subtle three-dimensional curves. From the later 1760s his furniture increasingly shows a conservative compromise with the nascent neoclassical style.

The date of Joubert's admission to the corporation des maiîtres ébénistes is missing, along with the early guild archives, but he was already syndic in 1749-50.

Much of his furniture was produced before Parisian guild regulations required ébénistes to stamp their production, and pieces intended for the royal Garde-Meuble were exempt from such regulations; however, the minutely-detailed inventory descriptions of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and inventory numbers stencilled on surviving furniture have enabled scholars to identify a number of pieces from Joubert's workshop. Francis Watson suggested that Joubert's marriage to a relative of Pierre II Migeon, a favoured cabinet-maker of Mme de Pompadour, may have brought him to her attention and likely through her to court commissions. For the Château de Choisy he produced, with the engineer Guérin, the famous table volante that rose through the floor for private suppers. In the decade following 1763 he supplied 2200 pieces of furniture to the court; under the pressure of such a volume of commissions, he was obliged to subcontract even some important pieces of furniture: the roll-top desk he delivered to the comtesse de Provence, 30 December 1773, was actually made by Jean Henri Riesener, who would succeed him as ébéniste du roi. In the Frick Collection, New York, is a royal commode delivered by Joubert in 1769 but stamped by Roger Vandercruse Lacroix.