for Madame Geoffrin
A short historical feature
This white marble and bronze mantel clock has an eight day movement striking on a bell with the backplate engraved in scroll by the maker 'Leroy a Paris' which is repeated to the white enamel dial. The white marble case has gilded brass ormolu feet and cast mouldings to the step and is surmounted with an allegorical bronze figure of a woman reclining against the clock. It is this figure which gives us the fascinating story of the clock. Depicting the French salon proprietor Madame Marie-Therese Rodet Geoffrin it was originally designed by Laurent Guiard and taken from a portrait of her entitled 'Study' and painted by Jean Marc Nattier when she was a student in 1738. (see picture below). Madame Geoffrin had commissioned Guiard to provide the bronze model after he was celebrated for making a fine statue of Louis XV for Versailles in 1754.
This style of clock was originally known as 'l'Emploi du Temps', which refers to 'the passing of time without neglecting it's mystery', it became known as 'Pendulum clock a la Geoffrin' as named by the well known French intellectual Diderot having been given an example by Madame Geoffrin. The first model of this clock, and that owned by her, was made by Christian Baulez and was left in her will of February 1777 to Simon-Charles Boutin. The next two examples were supplied in 1758 by the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux for the Duc de Bourgogne and the Comte du Luc and both had movements signed by Le Roy, albeit an earlier member of the family to this example. She subsequently commissioned another example in 1768 which was presented to Denis Diderot, the encyclopediest, which is now housed in the Musée du Breuil de Saint-Germain, Langres. Other members of Madame Geoffrin.s circle to own such clocks included the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, the financier Nicolas Beaujon and the Duc de la Vrillière. A good example is in the Wallace Collection in London.
Madame Geoffrin ran an important salon in the Hotel de Rambouillet, on the rue Saint-Honore, Paris, from 1749 for artists, intellectuals and politicians at a time when the Paris 'salon' was a place, usually run by a woman of independent wealth, where men of enlightenment, but rarely women who were felt to be a distraction, would meet to discuss any number of topics from the politics of the day to their own, and others, works and writings. The salon madame was often a great listener and would take on the role of an agony aunt to her members and provide a degree of measure in the lives of highly artistic and intelligent individuals.
Marie-Therese Rodet had married Pierre Francois Geoffrin in 1713, a lieutenant-colonel in the National Guard and director of the glassworks at Saint-Gobain. Although a rich intellectual and a member of the new Bourgeoisie Madame Geoffrin found she had no rapport with him and he died in 1750 just as her salon was taking on prominence. She would have her 'dinner' parties start at one o'clock in the afternoon allowing those present a longer period for discussion than if they had been wholly evening affairs and split her groups so that on Mondays she would entertain the artists and on Wednesdays the men of letters and other intellectuals. She was a great listener and was objective in her views of the works of poets and artists often giving advice that was eagerly sought. With such diversity of intellectual and artistic prowess along with expected large egos there were many counter-currents of opinion. It was her consummate skill in blending these diverse but powerful elements, and holding them within harmonious limits, that made the reputation of this autocratic hostess. It was noted by Abbe Morellet that her ability to attract foreign dignitaries such as Horace Walpole and Stanislas Poniatowski, later King of Poland, to her salon allowed for the spreading of the Parisien thought to a wider, foreign audience. He wrote: "She has made for fifty years the charm of her society. She has been constantly, habitually virtuous and benevolent. Her salon brought authors and artists into direct relation with distinguished patrons, especially foreigners, and thus contributed largely to the spread of French art and letters. It was counted among the institutions of the eighteenth century." A further frequent visitor and friend to Madame Geoffrin was Madame de Pompadour who would sneak away from Versailles to meet with the intellectuals of the day.
Madame Geoffrin was a frequent visitor to the Eglise Saint-Roch, the most fashionable parish church at this time and situated close by on the Rue Saint-Honore. (See picture below) One Easter she knelt on the cold marble floor and caught an infection that left her barely able to speak and nearly paralyzed. She died in 1777 and d'Alembert, Julie de Lespinasse and the other philosophers asserted that it was the church floor that killed her. She was then buried within the church alongside her friend Diderot who himself had been given an earlier example of this clock by her.
Basile Charles Le Roy was the Master Clockmaker to Napoleon & along with his son Charles-Louis were clockmaker's to the Princess Pauline and the Duke de Bourbon. Examples of their work are in all the major collections as well in the Ministere de la Guerre, Paris. The Maison de Le Roy was founded in 1785 at Palais Royal & continued until the death of Charles at Versailles in 1865.
