JOUBERT, Gilles
French cabinetmaker. He was a member of a Parisian family of menuisiers and became a maître-ébéniste sometime between 1714 and 1722. After the death of Antoine-Robert Gaudreaus (1751) he became the main supplier to the Crown for 23 years and carried out commissions for 4000 pieces of furniture. Only a few, however, were masterpieces, produced either by Joubert or under his supervision.
In 1758 he received the title of Ebéniste Ordinaire du Garde Meuble and in 1763, on the death of Jean-François Oeben, he became Ebéniste du Roi. Gradually, however, his position was taken over by Jean-Henri Riesener. Joubert acted to some extent as a main contractor, and when his workshop could not fulfil commissions he subcontracted to such cabinetmakers as Mathieu Criard, Marchand, Jacques Dubois, François Mondon, Boudin, Foullet, Louis Péridiez (1731-64), Deloose, Simon Oeben and particularly, during his final years of work, to Roger Vandercruse.
Joubert did not sign his furniture; the few pieces that have been attributed to him indicate that he progressed smoothly from the symmetrical Louis XV to the Neo-classical style. This is particularly evident in the red, lacquered writing-table (c. 1759; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) for Louis XV, a formerly lacquered lean-to secrétaire (Louisville, KY, Speed Art Museum), a pair of clock pedestals (London, Buckingham Palace, Royal Collection) from Louis XV’s bedchamber at Versailles and a commode (1769; Malibu, CA, Getty Museum) made for Princess Louise (1737-87).
