Settee (canapé) (part of a set) ca. 1754–56 Frame by Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot The Danish statesman of German origin Baron Johann Hartwig Ernst Bernstorff (1712-1772) remarked about King Frederick V of Denmark (1723-1766) that he "loved France with a passion."¹ The same could be said of Bernstorff, who was a true Francophile and was credited with speaking the language better than many French people.² During his tenure as Danish ambassador at the court of Versailles, from 1744 until 1751, Bernstorff developed a marked preference for the arts of France and lived in a beautifully furnished hôtel i
Settee (canapé) (part of a set) ca. 1754–56 Frame by Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot The Danish statesman of German origin Baron Johann Hartwig Ernst Bernstorff (1712-1772) remarked about King Frederick V of Denmark (1723-1766) that he "loved France with a passion."¹ The same could be said of Bernstorff, who was a true Francophile and was credited with speaking the language better than many French people.² During his tenure as Danish ambassador at the court of Versailles, from 1744 until 1751, Bernstorff developed a marked preference for the arts of France and lived in a beautifully furnished hôtel in the rue Bourbon in Paris.³ In 1752, not long after he was recalled to Copenhagen to assume the post of minister of foreign affairs, Bernstorff began building a grand town house in a new part of the city named Frederiksstaden, after the king. Although the exterior of the house, designed by Johann Gottfried Rosenberg (ca. 1709-1776), betrays German influence, the interior decoration was according to the latest French taste. Particularly beautiful was the tapestry room on the main floor, embellished with four hangings from the series Les Amours des Dieux (The Loves of the Gods). Woven of wool and silk at the Beauvais Manufactory in 1754, after designs by the painter François Boucher (1703-1770), these tapestries were commissioned for Bernstorff by his friend the collector Louis-Antoine Crozat, Baron de Thiers (1700-1770), who acted as his representative in France.⁴ To complement these tapestries, a set of twelve chair backs, seats, and matching armrests as well as the covers for two settees were woven at the same time.⁵ The set of wall hangings and the tapestry-covered seat furniture -- two settees and twelve armchairs -- were shipped to Copenhagen and installed in 1756. A marble fireplace and overmantel mirror as well as three pier glasses and three console tables were also made in France for this room, as were the gilt-bronze three-light candelabra signed by Franç
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