Cressent, Charles

Cressent, Charles (shärl krĕsäN`), 1685–1768, French cabinetmaker, one of the chief creators of the régence style. Although at first a sculptor and bronze craftsman, he studied under the furniture designer Boulle and became official cabinetmaker to the regent Philippe II, duc d'Orléans. Examples of his furniture display a strong and majestic beauty, with subtly curving supports and swelling surfaces. Against their veneers of mahogany and ebony stand lavish relief adornments in superbly modeled gilt bronze—the scrolls, shells, female busts, and dragons typical of régence decoration. Pieces by Cressent are in the Louvre and in the Wallace Collection, London.

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Cressent, Charles

(born Dec. 16, 1685, Amiens, Fr.—died Jan. 10, 1768, Paris) French cabinetmaker. He also studied sculpture and became an accomplished metalworker. In 1710 he went to Paris, where he worked in the studio of the cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle. In 1715 Cressent was appointed official cabinetmaker to Philippe II, duke d'Orléans. He was elected to the Academy of St.-Luc in 1719, and he consequently received important commissions from French aristocrats, including Madame de Pompadour. His early works were in the Louis XIV style, but later pieces (c. 1730–50) were lighter and more curvilinear. Cressent was the leading proponent of the Régence style and introduced marquetries of coloured wood and ormolu to case decoration.