GOUTHIÈRE, Pierre

French metalworker, who was born at Bar-sur-Aube and went to Paris at an early age as the pupil of Martin Cour. The son of a saddlemaker, Pierre Gouthière rose to become the most famous Parisian bronze chaser and gilder of the late 1700s, receiving commissions from some of the leading connoisseurs of his day. He produced a vast number of superb cast and chiseled gilt bronzes, executed chiefly for the adornment of fine clocks, East Asian and Sèvres porcelains, and furniture.

Like many successful apprentices, he married the widow of his first employer and took over his establishment. Success came quickly, and in November 1767 he received the title of doreur du roi (Gilder to the King) from Louis XV. Gouthière also supplied works to the Comte d’Artois, the Marquis de Marigny, and the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, among others. During his brilliant career he executed a vast quantity of metal work of the utmost variety, the best of which was unsurpassed by any of his rivals in that great art period. It was long believed that he received many commissions for furniture from the court of Louis XVI, and especially from Marie Antoinette, but recent searches suggest that his work for the queen was confined to bronzes.

He produced many of the most splendid belongings of the duc d’Aumont, the duchesse de Mazarin and Madame du Barry. Gouthière accomplished more than any other man for the fame of Madame du Barry’s château of Louveciennes. He continued to embellish Louveciennes for Madame du Barry until the Revolution, and then the guillotine came for her and absolute ruin for him.

Gouthière was successful and enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle. After 1775, however, two of his major patrons died and his financial speculations were unlucky. The 750,000 livres owed to him, by Madame du Barry, Louis XV’s mistress, for nearly twenty years’ work finally forced him into bankruptcy in 1787. He died in poverty, still trying to make her heirs repay him. The case was finally resolved twenty years later, when his son received a small fraction of the original debt as reimbursement.

At present the Wallace Collection in London contains the finest and most representative gathering of Gouthière’s undoubted work.

Designed by Louis-Simon Boizot and executed by Pierre Gouthi�re, this fine clock was presented by the city of Avignon to the marquis de Rochechouart on 29 December 1771. In 1768 he had received back the papal city of Avignon from Pope Clement XIII on behalf of Louis XV and had become its governor. The figure representing the city of Avignon holds a wreath over the Rochechouart coat of arms, while the reclining male figure below represents the river Rhone and the seated female figure its tributary, the Durance.

Gouthi�re was a French metalworker, the greatest artist of ornamental bronzes of the period of Louis XVI. He produced a vast number of superb cast and chiseled gilt bronzes, executed chiefly for the adornment of fine clocks, East Asian and S�vres porcelains, and furniture. The Wallace Collection in London includes a red jasper bowl adorned by Gouthi�re that once belonged to Mme Du Barry, a clock bearing his signature, and many other fine works.

Mantel clock

Perfume-burner